New Health Foundation
Thanks to the following contributors:
Julie Ann Johnson Rikki Swin
Member, Board of Directors and
Rikki Swin Institute
For their generous donations
New Health Foundation is a non-profit organization that provides assistance with health care and education regarding gender issues.
For more information, contact Dr. Randi Ettner Executive Director NewHealthF@AOL.com
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1
OUR ADVERTISERS
TRANSGENDER TAPESTRY
The Journal of the International Foundation for Gender Education
FOUNDER
Merissa Sherrill Lynn
EDITOR
Dallas Denny
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Miqqi Alicia Gilbert, Ph.D. Gianna Israel Andrew Matzner Gwendolyn Smith
ART DIRECTOR
Larissa Glasser
PHOTOGRAPHY
Mariette Pathy Allen
CONTRIBUTORS
Kate Bomstein Barbara Carrellas Bruce Christian Ivan the Crossdresser Georgia W. Dahlberg Miqqi Alicia Gilbert, Ph.D.
Art Grillo Stephen Vinay Gunther Dyan Hogue
Irene Istar Lev Shannon Minter Heidi Mueller Brenda R.
Marisa Richmond, Ph.D. Katrina C. Rose Gwendolyn Ann Smith David Steinberg Jacqueline Swartz
ADVERTISING MANAGER
Jeffrey Braveheart
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Joan Hoff
PUBLISHER
The International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE)
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, IFGE
Nancy J. Cain
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, IFGE
Sara J. Herwig
CIRCULATION
Deyco
Subscription and Subscriber Services:
To order TGT, make payments, or buy back issues with Visa or MasterCard please contact the IFGE.
Alonge, Maria CPE 39
Alternative Health Associates 59
Anderer, Suzanne CPE 39
Becker, Christine LICSW 24
Best Value Products C3
BodhiTree House (Kindred Spirits) 67
Cosmetic Electrolysis by Maria Vega 57
Ellaborn, Diane LICSW 24
Florence's Fashions 59
Genteel Products, Inc. 69
Glamour Boutique 69
Hall, Ed 17
Lee's Mardi Gras 21
McNutt, Amelia C. 27
Nelson, Sande (Get Organized) 27
Network for Battered Lesbians and Bisexual Women 69
New Health Foundation C2
Nubel, Dr. A.S. 67
The Phoenix Project 31
Reardon, Dr. James 01
Rikki Swin Institute (R.S.I.) 5, C4
Sandberg, Gonzalez & Creeden PC 31
Sandy's Boutique 69
Shoe Express 17
Take a Walk on the Wildside 21
TG Cosmetics (tgcosmetics.com) 57
University of Michigan Health System 67
The WayOut Publishing Co., Ltd. 65
Zola 50
To advertise in future issues please contact us at 781-899-2212 or e-mail to Advertising@ifge.org
Transgender Tapestry (ISSN 0884-9749) is published by the
I.F.G.E., P.O. Box 540229, Waltham MA, 02454-0229 Phone: (781) 899-2212 / FAX: (781) 899-5703 / E-mail: info@ifge.org
The contents and design of this magazine are © 2000 by the International Foundation for Gender Education and the authors. All rights reserv ed. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any commercial indi- vidual or service without permission of the International Foundation for Gender Education or the authors.
The editorial content of this magazine is the responsibility of the editor and may or may not reflect the opinion of the International Foundation for Gender Education.
Member COSMEP
2 • Transgender Tapestry #90
CONTENTS
DEPARTMENTS PHOTO FEATURES
05 A Editorial
06 A Transcriptions
09 A Ivan, You're Busted!
11-0- Trans-News
COLUMNS
13 A Too Tall Blondes
by Kate Bornstein & Barbara Carrellas 16 A History Lesson — What I've Learned by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
18 A Miqqitalk — Come on Out
by Miqqi A. Gilbert, Ph.D.
22 -v* Transgender Studies in Recent Academic History
by Marisa Richmond, Ph.D.
FEATURES
19 A Professor in Drag
by Jacqueline Schwartz
25 “O' In Legal Limbo: MTF Transsexuals in Thailand by Andrew Matzner
28 -v- Broopy, Pinky & Gaily
by Katrina C. Rose
29 A The Dating Dilemma: Male-to-Female Transsexuals
in the Dating Pool by Dyan Hogue
30 A Transgendered Elders and Marriage
by Shannon Minter
32 A Flying a Palindrome Proudly
by Bruce Christian
33 A Being a GOOD Gender Therapist
by Arlene Istar Lev 37 -0- My Transsexual Father
by Stephen Vinay Gunther 60 A INTERVIEW with David Ebershoff, author of The Danish Girl 68 ❖ Bureaucratic Adventures
by Georgia W. Dahlberg
FICTION
40 ❖ FIRST EVENT 2000 by Brenda R.
42 -v" OUT AND PROUD
44 -v- Crossdressers, Transvestites, Drag
Artists, Female Impersonators, Gender Benders: Mistakes Made, Lessons Learned, and Some Ecstatic Moments in
the '80s by Mariette Pathy Allen
REVIEWS
48 A To Be a Man: "Boys Don't Cry" and the Story of Brandon Teena
by David Steinberg
Deirdie McCloskey's Crossing: A Memoir 51 A by Miqqi A. Gilbert, Ph.D.
56 A by Art Grillo
58 A Paige Turner's Tsing Lee: Mother of all She-boys by Dallas Denny
NOTICES
70 A Community Calendar
70 A Research Subjects Wanted
71 A Professional Listings 76 A Support Group Listings 84 A Bookstore Catalogue
64 A The Fabric by Heidi Mueller
ON THE COVER: Drag Artist at WIGSTOCK by Mariette Pathy Allen THIS PAGE: At Left: Roxy Hart and Marilyn / At Right: Michelle and Betty Ann, Beauty Parlor, both by Mariette Pathy Allen
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 3
GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS
Transgender Tapestry is a magazine for and about crossdressers, transgendered, transsexual, intersexed, and other gender-variant persons, and those who support them.
OUR READERS
Write for a general audience. Our readers include closeted and out people: crossdressers, transsexuals, transgenderists, intersexed persons, gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, heterosexuals, therapists, physicians, ministers. Our readers span all ages, races, nationalities, religions, spiritualities, beliefs and opinions, and educational backgrounds. Your piece may be targeted for one group, but it should speak to the
larger readership.
WHAT TO SEND US
We want original material. We rarely accept simultaneous or previously published submissions.
We're interested in ideas which have been previously under-explored. We accept submissions on gender issues of general interest, including: new (for some people) types of diversity; little-known information about transgender history; under-utilized resources and populations; personal struggles; social or medical issues; humor with an underlying message; and satire.
We want writing that challenges categories, presumptions, and accepted thought.
HOW TO SUBMIT
We're modern folks. The best way to send materials is via e-mail.
We get it immediately and we don't have to retype it. Besides, it's cool.
Attach a file, using MIME encoding. These formats are acceptable for text files:
Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, Rich Text Files (RTF), and Text.
It's okay to send text in the body of an e-mail, but our Eudora Light mail reader doesn’t recognize embedded codes.
Graphic images should be in TIFF, EPS, or JPG format.
Unless they're self-extracting, please don't send zipped files without clearing it with us beforehand.
No e-mail? Send a PC-compatible or MAC floppy to Dallas Denny, P.O. Box 33724, Decatur, GA 30033-0724.
We hate typing in text, but we understand some people can't afford or don't like computers, so believe it or not, we accept articles on paper.
Please include a brief biography with your submission.
THINGS WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO SAY
DO send us stuff.
Deadlines are firm.
Contact us before submitting. Talk with us before writing, if possible.
Let us know what you want to do and when you can deliver it. Send us a rough draft if you have one.
Be reliable. Make your word stick.
Be concise. Don't ramble, and don't try to tackle too much in one article.
Don't be heartbroken if we don't use your submission. A rejection often has more to do with the theme or the space available in the magazine than the quality of the writing.
4 • Transgender Tapestry #90
E d ij o r i a J | A Word from the Editor
Editing this magazine is and always has been a balancing act. Transgender Tapestry is, as its name implies, a blend of human experience. Our con- tributors are a diverse lot. Some are crossdressers, some are transsexual, some are intersexed, some identify as both genders, and some as neither. Our readers are gay, straight, bisexual, and asexual, young, old, rich, poor, politically conservative, politically liberal, politically dis- inclined, black, white, Asian, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, agnostic, atheist, pantheistic, Wiccan, and every shade in between. Some are mental health professionals, some are ministers, and some are partners, spouses, family, signif- icant others, or supportive others. Those interested in gender expression come from all walks of life.
Previous editors of this periodical have been criti- » cized for making the magazine "too transsexual," and "not transsexual enough," for having "too much" materi- al about crossdressing, and for having too little. No doubt the current administration will get the same criticisms. We’ve already noticed, in fact, that the items which come across our desk are more often about transsexualism than crossdressing. You can bet your bottom dollar we'll strive to make Transgender Tapestry a beautiful blend of gender expression that will appeal to as many of our readers as possible, but we'll need your help to maintain the bal- ance. Please send us more material on crossdressing.
If you feel we're leaving someone or something out, let us know — or better yet, write an article and send it to us. This is after all, your magazine; we're merely the tem- porary custodians.
— Dallas Denny
HELP WANTED
Bio-Medical Researchers
Seeking several research qualified individuals to conduct trans person related research. We are primarily interested in research that can benefit the entire population via trans person studies. RSI is beginning to set up its laboratory facilities within the institute, and is seeking a Department Head, Technicians, and Administrative positions. Please, qualified individuals only. Experience and/or Credentials a requirement.
▼ ▼▼
Mail, Fax, or Email resume to:
R.S.I. Rikki Swin Institute, c/o Rikki Swin, 436B East North Water Street, Chicago, IL. 60611 (or) 312.565.1951 (fax) RSInstitute@aol.com http://www.RSInstitute.org
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 5
how?
ranscript ions
THE MAILBOX
I have enjoyed and appreciated your magazine. Thanks for your openness to feedback. I agree we are growing/moving in leaps and bounds. The times, they are a'changin'!
Should there be articles and coverage on FTM, intersex, trans youth? Yes, yes, yes!
Do I want to read about peo- ple? Yes, but not the same familiar folks. I'd like to hear about your average Joe, too!
I'm especially interested in the trans and queer movements build- ing alliances together.
I am opposed to surgeons, etc. having ads, especially big ones that take up a lot of space. I feel Europe is advanced in this arena, having no advertisements or soliciting at all. More ethical! I'm on the Board of Directors of FTM International, and we just refused a full-page ad from a surgeon. We are very differ- ent sized publications, but I'm just telling you my/our preference. We put out a resource guide with all medical info and more.
Dion Manley
FTM International Board of Directors
It's tragic to read that young transgender people in high school are still subjected to the kind of per- secution that was common when I
was a student in the 50s and 60s. It was sheer emotional hell to attend public school. I literally felt terror- ized. It was very fortunate hand- guns were not readily available then.
Monica Wendland
Renton, WA
I really enjoy and appreciate all that you do to produce Transgender Tapestry. The magazine has improved greatly in the last year or two. Married, hetero crossdressers like myself appreciate all that you do. Keep up the good work!
Susan Brown
Yakima, WA
Transgender Tapestry seems to be wandering again. May I make the following suggestions:
I've often wondered about the demographics of the TG Tapestry reader. When do they first sub- scribe, when do they stop, what has happened in between? A reader survey might go a long way in telling IFGE what subjects its read- ers are interested in. It would be important to know if they want pic- tures, stories, how to or philosoph- ical articles. For instance, I might find the articles on transsexual sex interesting, but do transsexuals in any numbers read TG Tapestry any-
Even if the subject matter gets repeated now and then, articles on how to dress, how to get out and where to go would help lots of the transsexuals just discovering their wings. If in every issue there were stories of places to go in different cities, I think it would be a big help. You could ask readers to send in reviews of good local places and I bet you would get a helpful response.
You may think wigs and make- up are fully covered in the "How To" books, but lots of girls still don't get the techniques down well. A review of various heavy makeups and where to get them along with tips on how to do it without looking like a street-walk- er could be an ongoing column. Surely there will always be some- thing on makeup that would inter- est the readers.
Many, many of the readers are now on the Net. If IFGE isn't going to have a great Web site it could at least review good sites and news- groups in each issue.
Serious science is rarely found in your pages. By far the most inter- esting article I've read in years was Ann Lawrence's "Autogynephilia: Men Trapped in Men's Bodies." She actually attempted to apply the principals of behaviorism to the question of why some transsexuals are as they are. Was there any rig- orously intellectual follow-up or
6 • Transgender Tapestry #90
response? The article you did print in response was way low of the bar and I'm concerned that others will be reluctant to offer good and con- troversial material for fear of being blasted for essentially being politi- cally incorrect.
Besides this article, I enjoyed the diagnostic test published almost two years ago. While its scientific validity might be in question, I'll bet almost every reader took it. People want to know about themselves, even if they don't think they should see a therapist. More of these items would certainly interest and enter- tain me and I think others.
Lastly, please tell the Personals Editor to remove my listing. No one writes anymore — the world has gone to the Net to connect.
Kate Goldman
LIFE AFTER REJECTION
This is a letter written to suggest the idea of staying in even an open- ly hostile marriage. Why? Because over time it has gotten better.
It's been about five years since my wife went nuclear. She was upset about several things, but what loomed large was my crossdressing. It was a sad chapter of my life. Suffice it to say we came very close to a separation in spite of my carry- ing all my "stuff" to a Goodwill drop-off location.
I abandoned the idea of dress- ing ever being something my wife and I could really share. From that point onward I could move inde-
pendently. After all, I began cross- dressing in private; it seemed natu- ral to resume it privately.
In no longer being subject to her attacks, I was able to defuse the explosive home situation. Of course, that took time. At the same time, I had to do what I had to do.
Right now I am cautiously opti- mistic about our future because she has not objected to my doing a bit of light dress-up in her presence. After a decade of opposition, she stopped harassing me about shaving my legs, which was very important to me.
By the way, it took about a year for my kids, all girls, to quit bugging me about my leg shaving. I've not explained the true implications any more than I'd give my kids a lecture about any part of my sex life. They wouldn't want to hear it, and what would be the end benefit?
I've learned that you take sup- port where you can get it. A divorced cousin was very support- ive and even helped me buy some women's glasses. On the other hand, I have another cousin who came out as lesbian. I told her about my crossdressing and she dropped our friendship like a hot potato.
I'm okay with the limits I've set for myself, within the context of allowing my marriage not only to survive but hopefully to grow. And I can still look through the art muse- um or Borders in high heels. Life isn't perfect, but it's good.
Thanks for the great magazine.
Julia Taylor
Your articles are not only of interest to our community, but to everyone who comes into contact with us. Even in this environment, the plight of the transgendered is often harsh. I have witnessed first- hand the prejudices that exist.
I'm one of four transgender inmates in a penal institution in Wisconsin; however, I am the only one who has qualified under the Colorado ruling to retain my hor- monal therapy for the duration of my incarceration, which ends in October 2001. Because of the physi- cal changes caused by hormonal therapy, I've gained some special considerations. For instance, I'm allowed to use separate showering facilities.
I'm also the only GLBT inmate who has made any attempt to make our lives here a little more bearable. Since my arrival some eight months ago. I've informed people about the transgendered. If you wish to use the term converted, then I have con- verted many who thought ill of our community and can now actually sympathize with us and have even sought out further information so they can be more informed. In April, I submitted a proposal to our Program Director and' Warden to institute a gender support group. I still await a response, but have been assured that a decision will be made within the next several weeks.
Jeanie McStarks
Oshkosh (WI) Correctional Institution
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 7
During my gender reassignment from male to female, I worked as a female cocktail server in the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I told them from the beginning I was a preoperative transsexual. In my employment tenure I presented to my customers as a very polite indi- vidual, properly mannered in com- munication and etiquette skills. I was terminated from the position after one month. My employer was untruthful in telling my co-workers why I was terminated.
I am challenging my former employer. I'm hopeful of gaining support from the many individuals who have experienced similar dis- crimination and wish to help clean up such unjust practices and pro- mote fairness amongst us all. I would like to hear from you and the members of your group.
Jenifer Desiree Scot
410 W. Patcong Avenue Linwood, NJ 08221-1533
GENDER LIBERTY
I believe that until government is out of the gender identification
business there will always be prob- lems with infringements on our basic human rights of privacy and liberty. People should not be identi- fied by their gender. The practice of identification of gender on any gov- ernmental documents should be abolished! This would be inclusive of birth certificates, driver licenses, death certificates, and marriage licenses. If the government has an overriding need to identify an indi- vidual it could be done with pho- tographs, fingerprints, DNA or some other means. The government should not be in the position, either as a requirement upon itself or as a product of its own whim, of telling people how they should live and, more importantly, who they can and cannot love.
This continuance of gender based discrimination by the govern- ment is in direct conflict with and an affront to our unalienable rights as set forth in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with cer- tain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pur- suit of Happiness."
While my interest is gender lib- erty, this issue goes way beyond gender rights; it's a human rights matter. There is a lot of room for other groups to join in an effort to support the end of this type of gen- der-based discrimination. Women's rights groups, gay and lesbian rights groups, intersex advocacy groups and transgender rights groups can find common ground and interest in supporting an end to government identification of individuals by an assigned sex. Indeed, the goal should be bringing an end to the government keeping records regard- ing one's presumed gender.
Nan Anderson
<phoenix9342@hotmail.com>
MOVING?
Make sure your Transgender Tapestry reaches you!
Send your new address to <subscriptions@ifge.org> or send mail to:
IFGE, P.O. Box 540229, Waltham, MA 02454-0229 or send a FAX to: 781/899-5703
8 • Transgender Tapestry #90
For some years now IFGE has been getting letters from someone in Florida the staff affectionately call — because they must call him some- thing— "Ivan the crossdresser. " Ivan sends letter after letter to Transgender Tapestry, each time signing a different name and south Florida home town. There are enough similarities among the letters to tip off the watchful letters editor, but from time to time across the years an “Ivan" cre- ation has found its way into our letters column, no doubt to the masturbatory delight of the letter writer. NO MORE, IVAN! YOU’RE BUSTED!
Here's what we know about Ivan:
• He sends us lots of letters, some- times only days apart, and often at holiday time.
• He sends letters to other publishers also, and occasionally manages to get one printed.
• His "letter writers" are from differ- ent towns, all in Southern or Central Florida.
• He usually poses as a youthful transgendered person between ages nine and 14, born male but living female, or as the female relative (often the grandmother or the older sister) of a transitioned transgender child, or even, occasionally, as a male. Ivan is particularly fascinated with grand- mothers; his grandmothers often pay for the transgendered child's hor- mones.
• He never sends more than one post from the same "person."
• He uses a typewriter with variable typefaces, which he changes to make it seem as if his pages come from dif- ferent machines.
• He varies the stationary he uses, but occasionally gets careless and reuses a particular design.
• He makes grammatical mistakes which are consistent from letter to let- ter.
• He consistently uses old-fashioned words like "adorable" and "darling" to describe girl's clothing and cross- dressed young boys, respectively.
• He often concludes his missives with points of advice to "other" young transgendered folks and their parents.
• The subjects of his letters often crossdress for the first time after see- ing a young boy crossdressed on tele- vision, often on a holiday.
• His "writers" often mention that a young boy cannot possibly transition without the help of an adult female. Females often coerce the child into crossdressing and always support the transition.
• The young transitioners are often named Billy, Jimmy, Bobby, or go by some other diminutive.
Following are some excerpts from Ivan's letters.
1 February, 1997 Sunrise
My big sister buys your magazine for me. She buys it at the big book store in Sunrise near the mall. ..I am just turned 14 and I have been crossdress- ing since Christmas 1995. I can do this every long weekend, school holiday breaks, and in the summertime. Last summer I spent a whole month living as a female and I never had such a
nice summer... I couldn't do this with- out female help.
21 February, 1997 Hillsboro Beach
My young grandson is a budding "TG," something I must acknowledge took me some time to get used to. ..It would be a wonderful service to the sisterhood for some magazine or organization to provide a forum for darling youngsters... Marge is now 13 and Grandma has given her an added birthday gift. I am paying for her female hormone therapy and have also established a medical and educa- tional trust for her future support.
Karen Deutsch (Marge's Grandmother)
21 February, 1997 Fort Lauderdale
I am a young (58) grandmother just discovering the delights of helping to raise a new 14-year-old granddaugh- ter. Yes, that darling child is now liv- ing with me as a female!... Thankfully, my daughter-in-law confided in me early on and let me be a part of Jimmy's new life.
Louise D.
This letter included a clipping Ivan had managed to get into the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, in which he wrote:
I got started being a girl on Halloween. Mom put an old dress on me and a mask and I was supposed to be a bag lady. She put powder in my hair to make it gray. Then for fun I asked my auntie if I could see how I would look in a pretty dress like my cousin wears to church.
Edith, age 11
Spring Break, 1997 South Beach, Miami Beach
Last year we returned home unex-
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 9
pectedly to discover our 12-year-old son Bobby wearing his sister's clothes, the two of them carrying on like sisters. They confessed they had gotten the idea from watching a tele- vision talk show and both found it to be fun.
4 April, 1997
Somewhere South of Orlando
I am just turned 13 and I have been dressing up in nice girl's clothes since the Christmas of 1995. My mom and Auntie Meg and Grandma and Cousin Kathy are all helping me to transition... My grandma paid for me to start on female hormones for my birthday present. ..No boy who never tried crossdressing can know what it is like and how it feels to see yourself all prettied up so's you can be a daughter and a granddaughter. A boy needs to have the help from some adult female in his family to get it right from the start.
12 April, 1997 Tampa
I am a TG boy 14 1/2 years old. I have been dressing and living as a girl now for almost 3 years. Last summer was my first time to be female the whole school vacation. I never had so much fun! That was when my grandma agreed to pay for my female hor- mones and all that. She said since I was determined to be her grand- daughter, I should look like a young lady and not like a monster.
28 October, 1997 South Florida postmark
My 9 year-old grandson is presently living with me as another grand- daughter!... His female gender prefer- ence was established innocently enough, dressing in his cousin's parochial school dress etc. for Halloween 1994.... That Christmas he asked Santa for some nice girl's clothes of his own. ..We have met one TG youngster who was crossdressed against his will at age 9, but family pressures have gotten him to accept and now enjoy a female self.
3 December, 1998 Pembroke Pines
No boy can transition alone. We all need loving, caring adult female teachers in our families... So, please get somebody to write an article for your magazine showing how a dis- tant grandma or auntie can offer a safe and loving home for that special boy in their family who is really a girl at heart... .
22 December, 1997 Boynton Beach
I am the 17-year-old sister of a 14- year-old TG brother. We have an older sister, 28, who is a nurse and lives with my grandmother in the Nashville area. I have recurring bouts
of shame and guilt because the three of us more or less coerced Billy into his makeover and kept him in it for the whole summer of '96. Billy had been visiting at Grandma's house when we saw a television talk show makeover of a darling 12-year-old boy who wanted to live as a girl...
14 January, 1998 Pembroke Pines
I am writing to you to settle a dis- agreement between me and my moth- er. She says it would be deceitful for her to subscribe to your magazine because she is not a sister. She is a female. She says if just anybody could get a personal, you would have a real bunch of idiots writing in to spoil your magazine on purpose...! am a
13-year-old TG boy and I have been living as a girl for the past three years. Mom got me interested in wearing girl's clothes when I was 9 and I liked it right from the beginning. My mom liked it too, because a daughter can be closer to a mom than a son can.
12 February, 1999 Lauderdale by the Sea
I am writing as a confused and befud- dled aunt with a commitment to help out a younger sister and her preado- lescent son. Sis refers to Michael (now "Millicent") as her "T-Son," though I have no inkling as to what she meant by that.
19 June, 1999 Coral Springs
I used to be "Billy" but now I am "Betty"... I started crossdressing when I was 9 for Halloween and my mom and sister liked having another girl around the house and so did I!
20 June, 1999 Imperial Point
Thanksgiving 1996 we watched a movie in which the boy actor had to be crossdressed. Me and my girl cousins teased my brother Timmy that Grandma could make him even prettier than that boy. Timmy finally said, "Okay." He would try it just to shut us up from always teasing him.
Even Timmy was surprised at what a pretty girl he made. He liked all that attention. He said any boy would feel all excited being made over and wearing all girls' clothes for the first time.
30 September, 1999 Pembroke Pines
Christmas 1955 my girl cousins and I teased our younger brother into let- ting Grandma do a makeover on him. Dressed in their pretty clothes, he made an adorable little girl. He will- ingly remained in female clothes for the rest of the day.. .He must have enjoyed it as much as we did, for a month later he asked our mom if he could be a pretty girl some more.
T
10 • Transgender Tapestry #90
T r a n s ~ N e w s
MASSACHUSETTS COURT ORDERS STATE TO PROVIDE HEALTH CARE TO TRANSSEXUAL WOMAN
Contact: Jennifer L. Levi, Esq.
(617) 426-1350
BOSTON, MA—
The Suffolk Superior Court today ordered the state to pay for breast reconstruction surgery for a transsex- ual woman, reversing its earlier denial. Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders represented the Plaintiff Germaine Beger in her appeal. Judge Maria Lopez found that a decision by the Division of Medical Assistance was arbitrary and based on an incor- rect interpretation of the state agency's regulations.
Ms. Beger is a 50 year-old Medicaid recipient who completed sex-reassignment surgery over 25 years ago. As part of her sex-reassign- ment surgery in 1975, she received breast implants. In 1999, she sought treatment for a possible cyst in her right breast and learned that she needed to have the implants removed, followed-up with breast reconstruction surgery. DMA approved the removal but denied the follow-up breast reconstruction surgery citing a state regulation that excludes Medicaid coverage for sex- reassignment surgery. During the appeals process, DMA refused to make any individualized considera- tion of medical necessity, as it would for a non-transsexual woman in simi- lar circumstances, stating simply that the law excludes transsexual women from receiving even basic health care coverage for treatments relating to being female.
"I am relieved by this outcome. Denying coverage for a procedure which my surgeon told me was med- ically necessary simply because I am
transsexual is wrong. 1 hope this deci- sion sends a clear message that it is unlawful to deny basic health care to transsexual people simply because of stereotypes, bigotry and misunder- standing," Germaine said after hear- ing of the decision.
The Court's order directs DMA to authorize payment for the procedure. There is no information regarding whether the state intends to appeal.
RIKKI SWIN INSTITUTE
For More Information Contact: Dana Lynn Henricksen Dana@threepeaks.com
CHICAGO, IL—
The Rikki Swin Institute, RSI, a new, not-for-profit gender organization, was announced today. Designed, managed, and fully funded by its founder, Rikki Kay Swin, the Institute's mission is to, "Stimulate changes in culture to improve trans person understanding and accep- tance."
Along with research, RSI has established a Library and Archives which currently owns one of the largest collections of published and non-published works on the trans community. Included are medical texts, doctor/patient case studies, periodicals and personal memorabil- ia. The large collections belonging to Virginia Prince and the late Betty Ann Lind were recently acquired by RSI. The International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) is relocat- ing its entire library and archives to RSI.
RSI will soon begin publication of multi-language editions of a Newsletter, free to professionals who request subscription through adver- tisements in world-wide medical and professional trade journals. Special emphasis will be on thought-provok- ing matters important to gender based research accepted from fore- most authorities in professional gen- der work and directed to prepare
(educate) professionals in the med- ical, corporate, pharmaceutical and research disciplines.
RSI's wholly-owned headquar- ters building is located in one of the most distinctive sections of down- town Chicago. On a soon-to-be-land- scaped parkway, part of the "Gateway to Chicago," 22 West Ontario Street is in the heart of the city's culture and commerce. Lovingly restored and rich in Old Chicago History, the late 19th Century edifice is a showplace for the trans community and is a comfortable setting for research, study, and educa- tion.
Employment opportunities in- clude Librarian, Curator, Medical Researcher and Bio-chemist are cur- rently posted. These important func- tions are accompanied by competitive compensation packages and will require working in downtown Chicago. Only dedicated and hard- working persons need apply.
Resumes with specific qualifica- tions are being accepted via E-mail at RSInstitute@AOL.Com. Additional information about RSI may be obtained at the RS Institute's web site WWW.rsinstitute.Org .
ANNOUNCING GENDER EDUCATION & ADVOCACY (GEA)—
THE GENDER ORGANIZATION FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM
Contacts: Dallas Denny, <aegis@mind- spring.com> / Jamison Green, <JamisonG@aol.com> / Jessica Xavier, <TheXGrrrl@aol.com >, (301) 949-3822, vm box 8
ATLANTA, GA—
The Board of Directors of Gender Education and Advocacy — Jamison Green, Dallas Denny, Jessica Xavier, Gwen Smith, Penni Ashe Matz and Sandra Cole (ex-officio) — are proud to announce the formation of GEA, the organization for gender variant
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 11
people for the new millennium.
Gender Education and Advocacy (GEA) is a new national organization focused on the needs, issues and con- cerns of gender variant people in human society. We seek to educate and advocate, not only for ourselves and others like us, but for all human beings who suffer from gender-based oppression in all of its many forms. We also are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated in Georgia. GEA lives on the World Wide Web at <www.gender.org>.
TB IN EAST COAST TRANS COMMUNITY
PlanetOut News Staff Friday, April 21, 2000
ATLANTA, GA—
The CDC is concerned about a num- ber of cases of a highly infectious strain of tuberculosis among transfolk in Baltimore and New York.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a report April 20 of tuberculosis infections associat- ed with social circles of young African-American transgenders in Baltimore and New York City. The first four cases in this group were identified in mid-1998, a year in which there were 18,361 cases of active TB identified nationally. The same strain of tuberculosis has now been found in a total of 26 active and 37 dormant cases among transgen- ders in the two cities and their close associates, almost all connected by attendance at a single social event. Although this strain is highly infec- tious— reportedly one physician became infected after only an hour with a patient, while typically many hours of close contact are required— it is not drug-resistant and so can be easily treated. The CDC issued the report and notified health authorities in eastern seaboard cities because "Frequent travel and social network links identified among the Baltimore and New York City cases have raised concern that this strain ... may be cir- culating in other cities among young, mobile transgender persons with HIV infection."
Tuberculosis is a lung disease caused by airborne bacteria. It is easi- ly tested for and generally easily treated with antibiotics, but if left untreated it can be fatal. The lowered immunity of people with HIV makes them particularly susceptible to tuberculosis infection and vulnerable to its disease process. Among the transgender group reported by the CDC, nearly two-thirds were HIV- positive (62%). Since the first TB cases in this group were identified, four have died. Baltimore health authori- ties screened more than 100 social contacts of the transgender group there and found that 37% tested posi- tive for TB.
When the CDC uses the term "transgender," it includes and does not distinguish among recreational and full-time cross-dressers and pre- operative and postoperative transsex- uals. The report described all but four of the people with TB in Baltimore as "men," presumably reflecting their sex as officially defined at birth. The four "women" were described as the men's family members and healthcare workers. The CDC recognizes that transgendered individuals may be heterosexual, bisexual or homosexual in their orientation. The Neiv York Times reported that New York City's Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center's gender identity pro- ject assisted health officials in devel- oping and distributing information flyers.
OBITUARY
Marcelle Y. Cook-Daniels, age 40, lost his lifelong battle with depression on April 21, 2000. A native of Washin- gton, D.C., where he lived until his 1996 move to Vallejo, California, Marcelle was a computer program- mer/analyst who worked for the IRS, the Maryland-National Capitol Park and Planning Commission, and, most recently, Norcal Mutual Insurance Company of San Francisco. At the time of his death, he was actively working toward his M.S. degree in computer science at Golden Gate University.
A quiet but very dedicated and principled activist, he was known for his work in raising awareness of transgender and Lesbian/Gay issues and for his efforts to promote and support his family values of love, commitment, honesty, openness, and public service. His education and advocacy work included presenta- tions at the 1999 Creating Change conference, the 1998 "Butch-FTM: Building Coalitions Through Dialogue" event, at several True Spirit Conferences, and at numerous other educational and advocacy events.
Interviews and/or photographs of him appear in the "Love Makes A Family" book and tour; Dawn Atkin's book "Looking Queer: Body Image and Identity in Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender Communities," and "In The Family" magazine. He was an active supporter of COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) and provided substan- tial material and volunteer support to the Transgender Aging Network, four True Spirit conferences, and The American Boyz.
Marcelle was at heart a family man. He was a devoted son to his mother Marcella Daniels; a passionate supporter of his lifepartner of 17 years, Loree Cook-Daniels; and an outstanding father to his 6-year-old son Kai Cook-Daniels, who calls him, "The best Lego-maker in the world." He is also survived by many beloved friends and colleagues.
The family suggests that those who wish to honor Marcelle's memo- ry through monetary contributions consider sending them to:
The Marcelle Y. Cook-Daniels Memorial Fund Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE)
3543 18th St., #17
San Francisco, CA 94110
(Checks should be made out to COLAGE
and accompanied bp a note or notation
that the donation should be earmarked for
the Marcelle Y. Cook-Daniels Memorial
Fund.)
▼
1 2 • Transgender Tapestry #90
C olu m n s
I
Too Tall Blondes
by Kate Bornstein and Barbara Carrellas
DEAR TOO TALL BLONDES,
I've been having thoughts and worries about my health/hor- mones/weight for a while now. Part of the answer seems to be to contact you and perhaps you can put me in touch with more information.
This is my dilemma: I'm 52 years old (that's not the dilemma) and I have experienced major changes in my life over the past five years. Those changes include the onset of menopause, illnesses (Epstein-Barr Virus, Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction, chemical sensitivities) along with loss and grief from an old relationship. I've been under great care for EBV, CFIDS and grief and loss, however the menopause and hormone thing feels sooo difficult. How does one find a knowledgeable practitioner who understands a Butch dyke? I have been a "third sex" all my life. My identity has, since the age of 6, been as a strong butch.
My mind as a strong butch female has been at times uncomfortable in a female body but somehow because of youth I was able to balance that out to feel lined up as "ME" ... not a male ... not a female ... but both. Now that perimenopause has come along, I feel so out of whack! My body weighs 50 pounds more than it did. I'm shaped
like a "woman," and my sexual appetite is almost zero. I want to work with an MD/naturopath, but I need to formulate my thoughts about this stuff in order to present my goals. My fear is that when I'm tested by a doc- tor for a hormonal imbalance, she/he will use a standard that is for a straight, femme, child-bearing woman — not a butch dyke who wants her "maleness" back. Can you tell me what you know about this? I would greatly appreciate it.
A footnote to this: during this transition I've asked myself "Where are all the 70 and 80 year-old bull dykes?" My fear is they've been lost to menopause. They're alive but they've been converted and given hormone replacements that are all wrong for who they are and so we can't see them any more. I fear many, many butch women have hit 50 and have been misguided into a "straight hormone panel." Talk about gender fuck! It's like starting over again with an identity I thought I had put togeth- er long ago. All the work I've done to create myself is fracturing because of menopause, and I want to make sure I find the right kind of care to recon- struct myself.
Again, I hope you are well and hope you can respond to this in your column.
Warmly (95 degrees), Hot Flashes You can respond to H.F. at: Hot Flashes, 1437 E. Blacklidge Drive, Tucson, A Z 85719 or <ullman@u.arizona.edu>, using “ATTN: Hot Flashes” in the subject line.
BARBARA: You all must be pretty busy planning your end of the millen- nium whatevers, as your letters to us have slowed down. No matter. We give advice whether or not we're asked.
KATE: We did receive one letter from a reader named Hot Flashes, which we promised to post here [see side- bar]. We think that trannies of every persuasion have dealt with or will deal with these issues, and we suspect there are more than a few readers who will connect with the topic of how hormones effect how we project our chosen gendahs in da world.
BARBARA: As you will read, Hot Flashes' issues and questions form a complex, intricate puzzle. We are ask- ing all of you to please share with H. Flashes any bits of wisdom you have that may help hir piece it together.
Transgender Tapestry #89 • 13
photo by Mariette Pathy Allen
KATE: Please do. There's contact info that follows Hot's letter. And now for something completely different: The End of the Millennium!
BARBARA: I don't know about you, but all this "end of the millennium" fever is working my nerves. First of all, I strenuously maintain the end of the millennium is not until next year — really, folks, it is. The nbw cen- tury/millennium ends on 31 December, 2000. Nevertheless, mass consciousness has decided that it's now, and who am I to try to tell a few billion people otherwise? Besides, it's a great excuse for a party, right?
The thing is, I'm notoriously anarchistic and can't bear to be told when to party — or how. This has left Kate and me in a quandary — what to do on New Year's Eve and day. I mean, anarchists or not, we don't want to be totally left out of all that yummy celebratory energy.
The question is, how to partici- pate without running up the charge cards or getting squashed in a drunk- en crowd.
I have a plan.
KATE: Uh oh.
BARBARA: Hush and listen.
Whenever the demands of the outside world get too overwhelming, I look inward. I find a lot of meaning, com- fort and wisdom there. It occurred to me that as 1999 becomes 2000, billions of people all over the planet will all be focusing their attention and energy on a single event.
KATE: Cool!
BARBARA: It gets cooler —
Experience has taught me that any
time that happens, the possibilities for change are boundless. So, think for a minute: what positive changes would you most like to see in the new centu- ry? World peace? Compassion? Social change? Inner peace? Designer geni- tals free of charge to those who want them? Be as specific as you can. Visualize the details.
For example. I'm visualizing the Dalai Lama at the steps of the main temple in Lhasa, Tibet. A perfect peace has been achieved with the Chinese and he is welcoming back all the refugee Buddhist monks and nuns.
I'm also visualizing a Sacred Sex ritual being performed in Central Park; it has finally come to pass that society understands the spiritual power and importance of conscious sex. Once a year thousands of people of every possible sexual and gender expression gather together in a Woodstock-like celebration.
KATE: The last time Barbara did a visioning like that — about fifteen years ago — she visualized Nelson Mandela released from prison . . . and as a great big stretch, she threw in see- ing him as President of a new South Africa. No lie. Really. See why I love her?
BARBARA: It's true. I dedicated orgasms to South Africa for years. I swear, this stuff can work.
O.K. Do you have your vision? Here's how to use it on New Year's Eve. Remember, this is supposed to be fun! It's about celebration and bliss. Sooo, if it's true that you get back what you put out, let's start off the next couple of thousand years with every positive thought and feeling we can muster.
The year 2000 will begin at the International Dateline at 7:00 am U.S. Eastern Standard Time on 31 December, 1999. Imagine a world- wide psychic orgasmic wave starting to build at that hour.
You can pick up the wave then . . . or at any point for the next twenty- four hours. Meditate on your vision(s). You don't have to be selfless here; make sure you include a person- al vision for yourself.
Now, do something physically ecstatic. What that might be is totally up to you. You might want to be sex- ual— with yourself or another(s). Or you might want to dance or play your favorite music at top volume. You could do yoga or ecstatic breathing. You could get dressed up in your prettiest or handsomest clothes and go sky diving! Have a gigglegasm, a sing-gasm, a scream-gasm, a cry- gasm, or a quiet inner-peace-gasm— whatever kind of orgasmic experience you want or whichever one happens.
Dedicate your orgasm to the real- ization of your vision. Let the waves of planetary bliss travel through you, empowering you, freeing you, and taking your vision and carrying it out over the world.
If you're a cosmic bliss junkie like me, you can have a vision and an orgasm for each time the new year starts in each new time zone.
KATE: <wriggling happily> I guess I know what we're doing this New Year's, honey. But I hafta do a bit of a thumbs-up-thumbs-down thing here on the subject of whether or not it's a new millennium this coming January.
I think that if the pop culture thinks it's a new millennium, then I'll celebrate it <shrugging>. When the folks who know what's up with this
14 • Transgender Tapestry #90
stuff make it clear next year, then fine — I'll celebrate again.
But, I've never been one for crowds — cyber or otherwise. My idea of an interesting millennium's eve consists of a lovely fireplace, beside which I'm sitting and scribbling out my new millennium resolutions. I've begun a version of this list, and here are some of the resolutions I'm mak- ing, with the wish that I get to share the next 2,000 years or so with others who make the same or similar resolu- tions.
MY TRANS-RESOLUTIONS FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM
(or whatever passes for it)
My transsexual journey has taught me a great deal about navigating fear- some life transitions. In the new mil- lennium, I want to apply what I've learned and continue to make brave and thoughtful transitions, moving through my fears and into freedom.
All this weird tranny stuff I do seems to intimidate people or terrify them. Sometimes people get angry, even other trannies. I want to discov- er a language that without sacrificing my integrity communicates who I am and what I do in such a way that most people can smile and say either "Wow, that's cool!" or "Hey — me too!"
I'm gonna get a little woo-woo here. The Age of Aquarius (all about harmony) is finally about to dawn, bringing to a close the Age of Pisces (all about martyrdom). In this new age (those hippies among us can sing the song from "Hair" now if they want to) I want to fully abandon the idea of martyrdom for some cause and replace it with the idea of service to the higher values of harmony, bal- ance, peace, generosity, and love.
Okay! This tranny movement is really taking off. It's happening. Now, the history of social movements has taught me that sooner or later there's going to be some serious and power- ful opposition to who trannies are and what trannies are doing. So, I want to develop the strength of character it's going to take me to treat my judges, tormentors and executioners with as much care and compassion as I'd like
them to be treating me. So much of my tranny life has been spent in suf- fering. Frankly, I'm getting way tired of all this suffering. In order to sur- vive my life so far. I've had to learn how to transform pain into pleasure, and I resolve to allow myself more time for conscious fun and delight.
I think the Girl Scouts are right to say we should leave our campsites cleaner than we found them. I want to embody that idea in my work, in my travels, in my environment, and in all my relationships.
And finally — if, as I'm coming more and more to believe, the way I do anything is the way I do every- thing, then in the new millennium I wanna practice doing even the sim- plest of things, holding the values of service and kindness.
BARBARA: What are we — the owl and the pussycat?
KATE: I thought we were being Pinky and the Brain, hon.
BARBARA: Nah! I know who we are right now. Say goodnite, Katie.
KATE: Goodnite, Katie.
BARBARA AND KATE: Write soon! And remember — whenever it really is, the coming millennium is the first millennium of the rest of your lives!
You can write to Kate and Barbara at:
Too Tall Blondes
Box 415, Times Square Station New York City, NY 10108, USA
T
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 15
C o / tv ro n s
This column is adapted from a keynote presentation given at Southern Comfort Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, Thursday 23 September, 1999.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED
I found myself only a couple of nights ago staring at a blank page, with no idea of what to say or how to say it. I had agreed to do this keynote, and I knew 1 could do it, but there I was, with no clue about what to say.
Then I realized what I should do. It was quite simple, really. I should use what I know. And so, here are a few things I've come to realize in these past few years as a member of the transgender community.
I've learned that without com- munity we have nothing. We've so much to share with one another, and so much to give. Through sharing information and fellowship in com- munity spaces such as Southern Comfort, we end up better, more well-rounded people.
This means sharing not only with people following paths similar to yours, but those walking different paths. A community is a harmony of voices, a place where people of many minds can come together, united by a common bond, to the mutual benefit of all.
Sharing is one of many things
History Lesson
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
that attracts me to the Southern Comfort Conference. There, I get to meet people exploring many differ- ent paths. Each person has given me a glimpse into their world, has shown me why their path works for them, and through that, shown me new ways to continue my own explo- ration.
I've learned that when we speak of diversity in our community, it doesn't mean just transsexual and crossdressing individuals. It includes all varieties of gender expression and all socio-economic levels, all races, and all ages.
As Robert Heinlein wrote in The Notebooks of Lazarus Long, "A genera- tion that ignores history has no past and no future." In the last year. I've discovered the importance of our his- tory and how that history works in relation to our community. I must admit, not long ago I considered the transgender community and commu- nity activism modern phenomena, going back not much earlier than the beginning of this decade. While doing historical research on the web- site "Remembering Our Dead," [ <www.gender.org/remember> — Ed. ] a different picture unfolded. I began to see individuals who helped us get where we are today, dating back to the first part of this century: trans- people such as Alan Hart, Lili Elbe, Christine Jorgensen, Reed Erickson,
Virginia Prince, Sister Mary Elizabeth, Lou Sullivan, and others whose impact is still felt today.
I also discovered the strong roots of transactivism in groups such as STAR in New York, CATS and COG in San Francisco, and TAO in Los Angeles, and in struggles such as the Compton's Cafeteria Riot in 1966 or Stonewall in 1969 [The acronyms stand for Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries, California Association of Transsexuals, Conversion Our Goal, and Transvestite/Transsexual Activ- ist Organization. There'll be more on these organizations and the Compton's Cafeteria and Stonewall riots in Given's future columns — Ed.]
In fact, the struggle for trans rights in the U.S. can be said to go back at least as early as Barbara Richards' attempt to convince the California Supreme Court to grant her a legal name and gender change in July 1941 — 58 years ago.
Through historical research. I've learned of atrocities we've endured over the years. Cases like those of Brandon Teena, Tyra Hunter, and Rita Hester didn't spontaneously begin in this decade. I've chronicled more than 180 different instances of
16 • Transgender Tapestry #90
death based at least in part due to the gender presentation of the victim, dating to as early as 1969 — stopping there only because of limitations in my research materials.
Steven Wilson, a 9-year-old, was raped, then beaten, then drowned by a 15-year-old neighbor, partially because he played with "girls toys." Diane Delia, Logan Smith, Jae Stevens and others were murdered by their so-called lovers, the local police, or other assailants.
We must remember all these individuals, not only to keep the vio- lence from happening again, but to keep us focused on the real enemies of the transgender community.
In an evolving world, the com- munity that stands still is actually moving backwards. While keeping an eye on our history, we must also be looking ever forward. By the use of emerging technologies such as the World Wide Web, we can further both ourselves and our community. I've seen this repeated in all my Internet projects, from the Transgender Community Forum on America Online — my first such foray into the digital realm — to my more recent works.
When I initially started looking for information on transgenderism.
there was precious little to find. It took a great amount of searching to go from having not the slightest inkling there was information out there to attending my first transgen- der support group.
Today anyone can, with a few keystrokes, find information on any number of trans-related topics and hook up with others who travel simi- lar paths. Thanks to this technology, a new generation of transpeople are finding information faster and are able to act on it at a younger age.
Through diligent use of the Internet and other technologies, we're able to extend our reach far beyond what was possible before. Today, when an injustice occurs, we're able to respond quickly and in greater numbers through the use of computerized mailing lists, e-mail, and web sites. In just a few short years we've been able to put the word "transgender" on the floor of Congress and in the pages of Time magazine — something which, with- out the Internet, would have been much more difficult or even down- right impossible.
Some of our biggest challenges lie in front of us, not behind us. Violence against transgendered indi- viduals is still a huge problem. My
research indicates a minimum of one reported murder of a transgendered person every month. Legal battles are raging throughout this country, with challenges in Kentucky, Minnesota, California, Texas, and elsewhere threatening not only our chances of gaining more rights, but affecting the few rights we already have.
Now is not a time for infighting or complacency; it's a time to be ever vigilant, a time to be willing to make injustices visible to the world at large.
In spite of the odds we face, we can achieve great things. Other com- munities have striven for many years to gain their place in this world, and have to a large degree been success- ful. We can too. We must.
▼
Gwendolyn Ann Smith is a "child of the Internet," serving as the Community Host of the Transgender Community Forum on America Online and the onQ Transgender Gazebo. She has co-host- ed onQ’s Sunday Gender Chat for the last five years and created numerous transgender-specific web projects, including the award-winning "REMEMBERING OUR DEAD" pro- ject at <unuuigender.org/remember>. She also serves on the Board of AEGIS and is an advisor to the Gay and Lesbian Historical Society of Northern California.
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Transgender Tapestry #90 • 17
Columns
COME ON OUT
Most of us are occasionally inclined to indulge in a fan- tasy about what the world would be like without the gender rules that currently govern it so tight- ly. According to the rules, you're born and you live in the gender deter- mined by your birth sex and don't cross over during your lifetime. You don't identify with the "opposite" sex, yearn to be that sex, wear their clothes, or adopt their mannerisms, consciousness, style or values. If you do so you'll be condemned, ostra- cized, ridiculed, and possibly beaten or murdered. Even if you're born with ambiguous genitalia, you'll be assigned to one or the other of the two official sexes and expected to toe the line and follow the rules of the group to which you were assigned. The penalties for violating the gender rules, whether you are going MTF or FTM, are severe.
The fantasy world in which we indulge, however, has no such rules. In that world, gender is liberated from strict determination. In its nar- rowest form, people are simply allowed to choose what gender they want to be and then assisted in changing as it is so required. There's no disapproval, no requirements, surgery is optional, and you're just considered someone who's made a basic but natural life choice. Going further, we can go so far as to imag- ine a world in which gender is fluid.
Miqqitalk
by Miqqi Alicia Gilbert, Ph.D.
a world in which gender choices might be made each day, hour or minute. This world is one in which gender is not thought to be some- thing inexorably imbued in your psy- che at birth, but rather something flexible and adaptable. In this world, you could spend half your life, ten per cent of your life, or most of your life in one gender without giving up the other. You might even mix and match. People would not be men or women, but people who are more or less masculine and feminine.
Now, the amazing thing is, such a world could exist. We could live in a world in which gender variation was not considered only slightly bet- ter than pedophilia. What's required is something that is, in fact, currently under way. That's a process called desensitization, which is itself a requirement for normalization. Desensitization happens when peo- ple become used to things because they're around all the time. The gay world has been using desensitization in a slow and incremental way to go from being deeply closeted to star- ring in TV sitcoms. Eventually, desensitization results in normaliza- tion, when people don't seem to care if someone is gay or straight — but we're not anywhere near that yet.
For its success, desensitization depends on two factors. The second requires the first, which is coming out, going public, being yourself in an open and honest way. By being out and publicly acknowledging
your crossdressing and/or transgen- der nature, you create a familiarity that makes it easier for the next per- son. The people you've come out to have to admit they know someone who's transgendered, most likely someone they know and respect. If that's the case, how bad can it be? I mean, they have to say something like, "I know this guy Jack who sometimes pretends he's Jill, and he's an all right sort of guy." When next they hear of someone who dresses or is going into transition, they take it in stride.
When I first came out, it was to close friends, then to family, and finally to everyone. In the early days, one acquaintance had been out on the West Coast and heard about my dressing. He returned and, thinking he had a real hot item, told another mutual friend here in Toronto. "Oh, yeah," said that friend, to whom I had come out ages ago, "I know all about that. Big deal, it's old news." By being out, I had defused the abili- ty of someone else to out me. Every time you come out to someone, you're teaching that being transgen- dered is normal, routine and OK.
I know for many people in our community, especially among the crossdressers, being closeted to one degree or another is the norm. The reasons vary, but the underlying fact is most crossdressers don't need to come out. If you're happy with the
18 • Transgender Tapestry #90
limitations placed on you by your personal closet, then the need to come out doesn't seem so great. The real or imagined threats to family, jobs, promotions, reputations and self-image are sufficient to compel you to accept what you have and not try for more. This frequently means being forced to find someplace to change into and out of your femme mode. It means having to prevaricate when asked what you did on a week- end when you went to a club dinner and then out to the bars. It means not dressing in your own home, lying to your children and family. Many peo- ple are willing to live with these lim- itations. Unlike a transsexual, who must, at some point, go public in order to maintain her/his sanity, the crossdresser always has the choice.
The choice the crossdresser has must be considered carefully. For one thing, the risks and consequences should be assessed realistically and not fantastically. By a large margin, the coming out experiences of most have been more positive then nega- tive. More often than not, people don't care what you do on your own time. But every time you do come out — to your significant other, to your family, to your friends, you're bringing that fantasy world a little bit closer. Every time you share your real self in all its complexity and gender diversity, you're coming closer to personal honesty and growth and educating someone about gender diversity.
In the final analysis, the choice is ours. When we come out, we can engage in political action, organize, and begin to desensitize the world to gender diversity.
The world in which you can wake up and see how you feel each morning before choosing trousers or a skirt will not be here in our life- times. But it will never be here if we don't just try to extend ourselves that little bit, try to be as much as we can all the time.
The following article originally appeared in Salon, 24 February, 1999. Used with permission.
PROFESSOR IN DRAG
Philosopher Michael Gilbert Discusses the Delights and Enlightenment That Come With Wearing a Dress, by Jacqueline Swartz
Late in the term of his second-year philosophy course on gender and sexual- ity, York University professor Michael Gilbert asks his class if they'd like to have a Q&A session with someone who is transgendered. Sure, says almost everyone in the Toronto class of 90 students. All semester they have been talking about what it means to be men and women, how gender relates to sex; they've discussed marriage, various kinds of love, what it means to be gay. Now they'll have the chance to see a "living deconstruction of gender dichotomy," as Gilbert puts it. Those who feel uncomfortable about seeing such a person, he warns, should not attend the next class.
A few days later, Brooklyn-born, street-smart Michael Gilbert, tenured professor and alpha male, shows up for class as Miqqi Alicia. "Her" walk is more tentative than the lumbering gait of Gilbert. She is dressed in a demure skirt and sweater and wears low heels. There is a glint of earrings underneath her shoulder-length salt and pepper hair, now released from its usual pony- tail. Her legs are shapely, her nails are well-manicured ovals, but the whole effect is more Mrs. Doubtfire than RuPaul. Miqqi will never quite make it as a knockout woman. Also, the well-credentialed professor is sensitive enough to dress appropriately. "In class I follow the unwritten female professor rules: Display few bright colors and no skin."
As she enters, the students giggle and whisper. There's a buzz. One stu- dent walks in late and practically trips on her double take. Miqqi talks for 10 or 15 minutes to let the class get used to the sight of him, now her. Transgender, she explains, is an umbrella term that covers anyone who is uncomfortable with, objects to or plays with his or her birth-designated gen- der.(By contrast, transsexuals believe they truly belong to the opposite sex.)
"The male cross-dresser doesn't believe he's a woman. I'm a man, with a man's body . . . and I don't want anyone to touch it with a scalpel," he/she tells the students with a little grin of self-diminishing femininity.
The rapt expressions of the students show they're on his side. So do their comments. A clean-cut-looking male student points out that all professors impose their styles and lives on their class, from their worn tweed jackets with leather patches to the endless heterosexual references to wives and chil- dren. "The creepiness factor was avoided," noted a female student." It's not sexual, he's not being caught going through his wife's underwear or wearing garters and heels." Indeed, Miqqi Alicia is more toned-down Michael Gilbert than drag queen. The voice is softer but not really higher, the gestures are less assertive — Miqqi flutters her hands where Michael would saw the air with his arm to make a point.
Later, over coffee, Gilbert meets with me to discuss the video that record- ed Miqqi's classroom appearance. Confident, jovial and intense, he wants me to know that his students are impressed that he's willing to share himself with them. Lately he's been sharing himself with more than students: Print stories and TV pieces on Gilbert have appeared in the mainstream media dur- ing the past year. The self-outing was intentional.
Gilbert believes that if you have tenure, you ought to say what's unpop- ular, especially if you're part of a marginalized group. "I have the obligation to expose myself as transgendered in order that others, for whom the risk
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 19
might be greater, can also do so," he says. Gilbert is part of a wave of gen- der-bending academics who put their bodies on the line. That once meant facing a phalanx of cops because you wanted to help stop the Vietnam War or Southern racism. But in the world of paradigm-rocking academia, the focus of revolutionary energies has irrevocably changed. While once campus radicals addressed explicitly political and civil rights issues-racism, the widen- ing gap between rich and poor, homelessness or America's military adventures-now they often battle on behalf of “the body" and the elusive experience of inhabiting a sexual per- sona.
Born of postmodernism's disillu- sionment with scholarly detachment, the contemporary study of sexuality allows scholars to become players rather than simply distant observers or temporary tourists. Michel Fouc- ault became both celebrated and notorious for his participation in San Francisco's gay bathhouse culture. Judith Halberstam, a wiry, suit- wearing, butch theorist at the University of California at San Diego, offers both a visual and conceptual understanding of gender fluidity. As Michael /Miqqi sums it up: "I'm liv- ing it, not just writing about it. I'm in the first person."
By teaching his class en femme, Gilbert becomes a walking illustra- tion of one of the tenets that under- pins much of his scholarship: Gender is just a construct propped up by deeply imbedded conditioning. And what is constructed can be decon- structed; the fact that you're born one sex shouldn't limit your freedom to cross over into another. His Miqqi outings are as political as they are pedagogical. Cross-dressers are often ignored, he contends, living in the shadow of surgically altered trans- sexuals or flamboyant drag queens.
To bolster courage and self- esteem among his kind, he edits a magazine called The Monarch:
Canada's Transgender Reader and orga- nizes support groups. If all this sounds a little fringy, it's important to remember that Gilbert is not a recent product of an obscure post- modern-leaning school. He has strong establishment credentials: tenure, a C.V. heavy with publica- tions in both traditional and trendy academic journals and more than 25 years of university teaching. After getting a Ph.D. at Ontario's University of Waterloo and joining the philosophy department of York University in 1975, Gilbert special- ized in critical reasoning. His first book. How To Win an Argument (now reprinted by John Wiley), was pub- lished in 1979. Since then, he has written two novels, one of which. The Office Party, a psychological drama about a man who takes his co-work- ers hostages and has no demands, was made into a film in Canada in 1988 called "Hostile Takeover."
Like many who have wedded their sexuality and their scholarship, Gilbert's academic work in transgen- der issues only evolved after he come out personally. In 1984, when he was 39, his wife died. "I realized that life wasn't a dress rehearsal," he says. “I began to come out, and I felt less of a separation between my cross-dress- ing self and my academic self. I began to explore it philosophically."
His intellectual work around gender issues developed slowly as he built a bridge between his explo- ration of verbal disagreement and the incongruities of male and female styles of expression. In 1991, he start- ed to work intensively on argumen- tation theory. In a paper titled "Coalescent Argumentation," he wrote about how seemingly diver- gent positions could be articulated and then joined: “I am concerned with exploring the ways in which people may disagree more effective- ly, and especially, with a greater pos- sibility of ending in agreement." Gradually, he became interested in the possibility of “coalescing" male
and female stances, like two sides of an irresolvable argument finally communicating.
"I saw gender differences as rele- vant," Gilbert says, “particularly as I slipped from one gender to another-I could feel them more vividly. If you survey the way men and women communicate, you can identify cer- tain differences. Some are important. Women have a greater attunement to nonverbal communication, they can get beneath the surface."
Like the vast majority of cross- dressers, Gilbert is a heterosexual man, and aside from this little fetish, he has led a rather conventional life. He has spent most of his adulthood married (his current wife is his third) and with children (he has one biolog- ical child and three stepchildren). Seen within this context, Gilbert tends to view cross-dressing as a way of escaping the strictures of mas- culinity. "Imagine being an alpha male and being able to flip to being a beta female once in a while. It's a release, like a holiday."
But this holiday, he's quick to add, is not some superficial day-trip; it goes much deeper than glammed- up drag. "If you are going to declare yourself a part- or full-time woman you have to go beyond appear- ances," he says.
Yet even within the process of building a new look, Gilbert finds fodder for thought. He approaches female garb and grooming with pur- pose and rationality: To learn make- up skills, he went to a MAC store for lessons. And as he carefully plans what he's going to wear, he's also pondering the meaning of male vs. female wardrobes. Why is it that women have an expanded gender wardrobe-from jeans to slinky dress- es-while men are limited to dressing, as he calls it, en drab? "It's OK to go up the gender ladder but not down," he says. "In our society, you never do anything that diminishes your power."
He also claims that his time spent
20 • Transgender Tapestry #90
in feminine form has influenced his philosophical understandings of argumentation and competitiveness. When he's a woman, he says, power and winning become less important. This different sensibility, he notes, has seeped into his work. "My argu- mentation theory is now a blend of animus/anima, male/female." Despite the explicitly political claims of such gender scholarship, however, it's dif- ficult to see how such ideas can have a radical impact on what we already know about male and female com- munication. There are, after all, many female philosophers, linguists and rhetoricians who can attest to the dis- tinctions between male and female speech and presentation. Moreover, it's just the sort of observation that hardly requires a Ph.D.
What then, is the ultimate value of male philosophers who wear dresses and female-to-male transsex- uals who teach anthropology? Aside
from making the college campus a lively carnival of sexual diversity and challenged assumptions, aside from giving an intellectual voice to a sexually marginalized group, such radicalism largely evades old notions of collective activism, merely articu- lating a very specific set of experi- ences.
What happens when all the transgendered exit their closets, as
Gilbert is admirably helping them to do? What will their liberation mean to anyone who isn't another secret cross-dresser? It's a philosophical question that Gilbert and others in the transgender movement have yet to answer.
Jacqueline Swartz is a writer living in Toronto.
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Transgender Tapestry #90 • 21
C o / u m n s
Transgender Studies in Recent Academic History
Fisher, Gayle Veronica. “The Ladies Like Trousers”: Cross-Dressing
Women in the Mid Nineteenth- Century United States. Paper deliv- ered at American Historical Association, New York, January 1997.
Miller, Barbara L. Cross-Dressing for Success: RuPaul and Barbie. Paper delivered at American Historical Association, New York, January 1997.
Meyerowitz, Joanne. Sex Research and the Boundaries of Gender: Transvestites, Transsexuals and Alfred Kinsey. Paper delivered at Organization of American Historians, Indianapolis, April 1998.
The first two works cited above were delivered as part of the panel "Out of the Closet: Clothing, Class, Gender and Masquerade" at the 1997 American Historical Association meeting. They are part of the increasing amount of attention being given to transgender issues in academia.
Fisher, a graduate student in the Department of History at the University of Georgia, looked at the lives of women who dressed and lived as men in the Nineteenth Century. She pointed out that many women were thus able to cross rigid- ly-defined gender lines. At a time when women were not permitted many rights, people like Charlie Parkhurst were able to vote. The introduction of the Bloomer in 1849 caused additional problems. The wearers of this trouser-like garment were initially considered "boy-like" and stereotyped as smokers, spitters, and swearers.
by Marisa Richmond, Ph.D.
Over the years, it has been well- documented that numerous women lived and dressed as men to fight for either the Union or Confederacy dur- ing the Civil War. Fisher suggests this number may be approximately 400. She states that Nineteenth Century critics of female soldiers claimed they had been inspired by fiction and offered many rationales for behavior they could not fathom, since they had already decided women could not meet the demands of combat.
Fisher concentrates much of her analysis on the life of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker (1832-1919). She notes that Walker was bold, outspo- ken and opinionated, characteristics considered unfeminine at that time. Fisher states that Walker's military uniform generated anger, fear and hostility when she served as a sur- geon in the Union Army in Tennessee during the Civil War. She suggests those traits still make many uncom- fortable, since the 1982 commemora- tive stamp of Walker shows her dressed as a woman rather than depicting what the society of the day defined as her "addiction" to male clothing.
Over the years, many have tried to offer rationales for cross-gendered behavior. Among those rationales has been that one gender's clothing is more comfortable or less restrictive than another gender's clothing. Fisher rejects these rationales. She argues that while late Nineteenth Century men's clothing may have been more comfortable than women's. Walker just did not fit into society's defini- tions of gender. Many during
Walker's lifetime rejected her as male or female, suggesting by their very behavior that they believed there could possibly exist more than two sexes. Yet, their rigid binary defini- tions of gender did not permit them to acknowledge that possibility.
Dr. Walker's insistence on dress- ing in male clothing while still main- taining her feminine identity clearly challenged societal rules regarding gender. Fisher believes Walker is rep- resentative of a third (of an unknown number) gender and suggests society should make room for those new cat- egories and find new definitions for them.
•
Miller, a professor of contempo- rary art at Iowa State University, pro- vided a comparison of the roles of two icons of popular culture from the last forty years: Barbie and RuPaul. When Barbie, based on the German Lilli doll, was introduced by Mattel in 1959, she fit the rigid stereotypes of femininity of the period. She had long blonde hair and what Miller describes as "a space age shape... breasts to blast into the future."
Those late fifties stereotypes are now being challenged. Miller noted that in 1993 the Barbie Liberation Organization switched the voice boxes of Barbie and G.I. Joe. That same year saw the breakthrough of RuPaul, whom Miller describes as a Post Modern Signifier (PMS). The entertainer blurs racial and gender
22 • Transgender Tapestry #90
lines with her big hair, augmented bust, and slim hips. Ironically, RuPaul's blurring of those lines occurs just as Barbie is beginning to portray society's ethnic diversity. Of course, these portrayals have their limits, since the “ethnic" Barbies still have decidedly Caucasian features like long hair, a big bust and slim hips.
Miller is not an historian, and her subject does not yet lend itself well to historical analysis, but her analysis as an artist and designer provides insight into the way in which late Twentieth Century society portrays and accepts race and gender.
•
The third paper by Meyerowitz, a professor of history at the University of Cincinnati, is part of a larger project on the history of transsexuality. She sees Alfred Kinsey having a signifi- cant role in studying the shifts in atti- tudes towards gender and the role of transsexuals.
In his first major work on human sexuality. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948), Kinsey did not address transvestism or transsexuality. While he had been in contact with some crossdressers and transsexuals before he wrote his work, he did not dwell on them because he did not recognize them as distinct sexual categories. He thus received criticism for ignoring transgendered people. In the summer of 1948 he met a crossdresser, Louise Lawrence of San Francisco, who sub- sequently introduced Kinsey to other crossdressers, female impersonators and transsexuals, helping Kinsey compile numerous personal histories. Lawrence also helped Kinsey collect literature and transvestite fiction and insisted transgendered people were not as rare as Kinsey suggested.
By the early 1950s, Kinsey began to think he may have underestimated the numbers of transgendered peo- ple— plus, Meyerowitz notes, in the post-war era there was a nationwide doubling of bars featuring female impersonation as entertainment.
Lawrence's role is important.
according to Meyerowitz. She not only sent Kinsey a huge collection of transvestite literature in 1951, she even took him to a social gathering in Southern California. Since Kinsey did not moralize, he was able to win acceptance.
Among the items the Kinsey Institute has collected is a 1952 newsletter published by Danny Linten of Long Beach called Transvestia: Journal of the American Society for Equality in Dress. This newsletter hoped to distinguish cross- dressing as distinct from homosexual- ity by suggesting that transvestites were “sexually normal," thus hinting at the divisions between the transgen- dered and gay communities.
In 1949, Kinsey met his first trans- sexual, Lynn Barry, a pre-operative male-to-female from San Francisco. He eventually met Christine Jorgensen and sought out additional interviews with other transsexuals. In all, he interviewed approximately 100 male crossdressers, 11 female cross- dressers, and 10 post-operative male- to-female transsexuals.
Meyerowitz suggests that while Kinsey's views regarding transgen- dered identities may have originally concurred with the rest of society, by the end of the 1940s he had begun to realize there was variation. He sepa- rated transvestism from homosexual- ity, but without the transgender/ homosexual distinction offered by Linten.
Over time, Kinsey's views evolved. He had no aversion to sexu- al subcultures, but he balked at geni- tal surgery. Meyerowitz believes Kinsey had his own version of castra- tion anxiety and believed in the cen- trality of genitals to well-being. He was worried that transsexuals would not have “genital output" and he encouraged homosexuality over surgery.
While Kinsey's views towards male-to-female transsexuals was becoming more enlightened, he moved much more slowly with female-to-males. In his second major
study. Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953), he estimated that five percent of women could be cross- dressers, although he discounted the possibility that any of them could be fetishistic. He saw transsexuality as a strictly male phenomenon, because, he argued, the brains of men were dif- ferent and no woman would actually attempt to become a man. By 1956, the year in which he died, he finally began to show interest in FTMs.
Kinsey, who was not a crossdress- er, was more accepting than most. Kinsey's biographer, James H. Jones, has suggested Kinsey himself may have been both gay and a masochist, making him more tolerant of other sexual minorities. Despite Kinsey's philosophical limits, Meyerowitz sees him as a person ahead of his time, as a result of his own professional back- ground and socializing.
Kinsey's research has done much to bring light to otherwise invisible sexual minorities. Meyerowitz believes his work with transgendered people in the 1940s and 1950s assisted in the creation of a group identity that helped legitimate acceptance of gen- der variance in the 1960s and 1970s.
T
Marisa Richmond has been very active and visible in Nashville's GLBT community. She is the Co- Founder of the Tennessee Vais, for- mer Board Chair of AEGIS (1996- 1999), and a current monthly colum- nist in Transgender Community News. She was a delegate to the charter meeting of the Magnolia Transgender Alliance and has been a delegate to the Congress of Transgender Organizations. With a Ph.D. in history, she has had several columns on historical studies pub- lished by both Transgender Tapestry and Chrysalis. She has also been a regular panelist and featured speak- er at Southern Comfort since 1995, and has participated as a panelist or speaker at several other gender events, including IFGE and the 1997 Congress on Sex and Gender.
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 23
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24 • Transgender Tapestry #90
In Legal Limbo: MTF Transsexuals in Thailand
by Andrew Matzner
"The Thais are a happy people, who smile a lot and avoid any form of overt conflict or confrontation"
— A. Kapur-Fic, in Thailand:
Buddhism, Society and Women, 1999, p. 528
FOR MANY AMERICAN TRAVEL- ERS, THAILAND IS A PLACE TO cheaply and easily shed repressive Western norms and expectations. "The Land of Smiles" attracts a great number of admirers, whether in per- son or in print, because of the free- dom it offers both to Westerners and Thais themselves, particularly in the realms of sexuality and gender — for Thailand is one of the world's sex- tourism capitals, where a limitless range of erotic experience lies avail- able to anyone with even a minimal amount of dollars. It is also, accord- ing to the Spartacus International Gay Guide, a "gay paradise" in which Western-style homophobia is virtually absent. Finally, transgen- dered people in this country are con- sidered to be liberated, integrated into society in a way unheard of any- where else.
Each of these three utopias are supposedly made possible by what is often referred to as the "Thai nation- al character." The Thai personality is conceived of by Western writers as being fun-loving and tolerant of dif- ference. And when Thais do get annoyed, whether with foreigners or each other, they keep it to them- selves. The problem with this concep- tion of Thai culture is that it is too simplistic. To be sure, Thailand is radically different from a country such as the United States, where expressions of homophobia and transphobia are common occur- rences. Thai transgendered men and MTF transsexuals (collectively known as katoey) are a part of every-
day life here, living and working in a wide range of family situations and professions.
Yet in spite of outward accep- tance of transgenderism, strong neg- ative attitudes do exist — it is just that they are not openly shown. Certainly, during my first few months in Thailand I believed that katoey enjoyed an incredible standard of acceptance. However, the more I spoke with and listened to Thais, the more I realized discrimination did exist. Families ostracize children; friends and neighbors gossip, caus- ing irreparable loss of face; the mass media presents negative images and stereotypes; strangers (and acquain- tances) engage in non-consensual (and unprosecutable) sexual vio- lence; and the State — well, the Thai state's own form of violence upon the lives of katoey is the subject of the essay below. It is my hope that this piece of writing goes at least a little way in discouraging the popular view that transgendered people have it easy in Thailand.
Of course, if one thinks in terms of living openly as transgendered, then things are undoubtedly better here in Thailand. But to assume, as many commentators do, that trans- phobia doesn't exist in this country results in the erasure of the problems which are indeed present.
Transsexual surgery and the
law
THE MOST SERIOUS PROBLEM FACED BY POST-OPERATIVE MTF
transsexuals ("katoey") in this coun- try is that they are still considered to be men according to Thai law. Although the first reported sex reas- signment operation in Thailand occurred in 1972, after all these years it still remains impossible for trans- sexuals to modify their sex on docu- ments such as passports, ID cards, and registration records. There have been only two cases in which trans- sexuals have petitioned the govern- ment to allow them to modify docu- ments. The first instance occurred in 1972. A post-operative transsexual in Khon Kaen province sought to have the sex modified on her household registration forms from male to female. However, the Interior min- istry refused her request, stating that "[mjale or female characteristics have to comply with nature and the [phys- ical] facts at birth. They are not some- thing which can be acquired later as the result of an operation. Addition- ally, a person's legal sex is entirely [based on] genetic and chromosomal [factors]. It should be noted that sex- change operations are not endorsed by any law. However, if the plaintiff insists on having his documents changed, he is advised to submit his case to the courts" (quoted in Rakkit, 1997). This person subsequently decided to abandon their petition.
The next case actually went to court. Chumpol Silapaprajamphong submitted her application to change documents to both the Civil and Appeal courts. However, her case was turned down by both courts, based on the Supreme Court's ruling
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 25
that an individual's sex is deter- mined by genetic and chromosomal ingredients alone. The Court argued as well that according to the dictionary (specifically the 1950 edi- tion published by the Thai Royal Academy), a woman is defined as a person who can deliver a baby. Therefore, MTF transsexuals are pre- cluded from claiming that identity, regardless of how complete their surgery might be.
RAPE
CONSIDERED UNDER THE LAW TO BE MEN, KATOEY ARE NOT protected by Thai laws relating to rape. This is due to the wording of Section 276 of Thailand's Penal Code. It defines a rapist as follows: "Whoever has sexual intercourse with a woman who is not his wife, against her will, by threatening her by any means whatever, by carrying out any act of violence, or by taking advantage of the fact that the woman is unable to resist." Accordingly, whether a post-operative transsexual is sexually violated either vaginally or anally, this particular law will not apply to her case, because she is still legally a man.
The only legal option for a trans- sexual in this matter would be to press charges of physical assault. The penalty for a person convicted of rape as opposed to physical assault is considerable. The former carries a prison term of between four and 20 years and/or a fine of Bt 8,000 to Bt 40,000 ($220 - $1100). On the other hand, a person convicted of the latter faces a maximum prison term of two years and/or a maximum fine of Bt 4000 ($110).
The rape law cited above has suf- fered severe criticism from Thai fem- inists, as it discounts the possibility that a wife may be forcibly sexually violated by her husband. At the pre- sent time, a proposal to amend this law has already been submitted to Parliament. The amendment would
broaden the definition of rape to include the vaginal/anal forcible penetration of either a male or female, married or not. As of Winter 1999, this amendment had not yet been promulgated, and it is feared by some that it may end up languishing in its present condition for quite some time (Virada Somsawadi, per- sonal communication).
The role of the new Thai constitution
IN OCTOBER 1997, THAILAND INSTITUTED ITS MOST RECENT constitution. Nicknamed "The People's Constitution," the finished document reflects the input of men and women from various sectors and levels of society. For the first time in its history, the Thai government had made the effort to involve members of society typically excluded from such policy-making.
Section 30 of the new constitu- tion reads, in part, "All persons are equal before the law and shall enjoy equal protection under the law. Men and women shall enjoy equal rights. Unjust discrimination against a per- son on the grounds of the difference in origin, race, language, sex, age, physical or health condition, [or] per- sonal status. ..shall not be permit- ted...."
However, the enactment of this constitution did not mean that laws which protect the human rights of transsexuals automatically sprang into being. Instead, a plaintiff who believes his/her human rights have been violated because of their trans- genderism must first bring their indi- vidual case to court, and then make reference to the new constitution. That is, until katoey begin bringing their cases to court, human rights abuses will continue, regardless of what is written in the constitution. Therefore, for the legal situation of transsexuals to change, a concerted effort must be made.
To begin, Thai government offi-
cials must be better educated about transgenderism. The currently favored medical model which views katoey as suffering from a debilitat- ing mental disorder is based on out- moded and discredited Western psy- chological theories from the 1950s and 60s. The endorsement of this explanation provides institutions such as the military and the national teacher's college with the justifica- tion for biases against katoey.
Reporters need to learn more as well. The Thai mass media plays a significant role in disseminating mis- leading information about transgen- derism. For instance, newspaper and magazine articles about katoey typi- cally quote doctors from the medical and mental health professions. These "experts" tend to describe transgen- derism in terms of mental illness and view the etiology of transgendered behavior in a simplistic manner (for example: too much mother, not enough father).
Education about transgendered issues begins with seminars, press conferences, conferences, and books. Increased data about this topic will mean that officials or reporters can move beyond one-sided source mate- rial. A continued effort to make infor- mation available about different aspects of transgenderism to differ- ent sectors of society will also serve to weaken government or media claims that "The" cause of transgen- derism is so-and-so, or that "all" katoey have such-and-such personal- ities. But who will actually be distrib- uting this new information, and from where will it come?
First, it will be necessary to create a non-governmental organization (NGO) consisting of katoey who are willing to actively engage with the public and fight for changes in the Thai law. Lesbians have already done it, with Anjaree. This group is dedi- cated to educating the public about women who love women, and pub- licly challenging discriminatory and misleading media representations
26 • Transgender Tapestry #90
about lesbianism and homosexuality in general. Anjaree also functions as a support system and social network as well. Moreover, its small but wide- ly distributed magazine, Anjareesan, allows members of the group to pro- duce discourses about lesbianism in their own words.
Previously, the only information available to the general public about lesbianism was that produced by the mass media, saturated with the voic- es of "authorities" such as doctors and professors, rather than lesbians themselves. By following this model, katoey will begin to take their des- tiny into their own hands, instead of leaving it up to unsympathetic par- ties.
Second, a lobby group made up of plastic surgeons should be formed to press for changes regarding the documentation of the sex of transsex- uals. Likewise, a lobby group com- posed of lawyers could address issues such as the current legal defin- ition of rape which excludes katoey. Groups such as these could be instru- mental in influencing both govern- ment policy and public opinion con- cerning katoey. These groups could also provide the much needed sup- port for katoey who decide to take
their cases to court. In addition, both groups would be able join forces with human rights and feminist groups. For instance, any addition to the women's voices already opposing the current rape law would only strengthen that campaign.
It is only through formal organi- zation that katoey and their support- ers can begin to effectively address the problematic status of the trans- gendered in Thai society. Until that occurs, katoey will be second-class citizens, particularly under the law. But there are promising signs of change. In Chiang Mai, a large city in the north, there is talk among katoey bar-workers of forming an NGO. At the same time, across town, a group of upwardly mobile professional katoey tired of backward public atti- tudes are discussing the same thing. And in Bangkok, Dr. Preecha, the city's preeminent sex-reassignment surgeon, tells me he has noticed a change among his ex-patients. More are joining informal support groups. Fewer are willing to quietly endure their continued classification as men.
These are hopeful signs. The sooner an organization for katoey joins Thailand's 4000 NGOs, the sooner will the idea of equality for all
under the law and the constitution even begin to approach reality.
SOURCES
Jackson, Peter. (1996). Thai academic studies of katoeys and gay men: A brief critical history. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Thai Studies, Theme III: Family,
Community and Sexual Subcultures in the AIDS Era, pp. 83-101. Chiang Mai, Thailand, 14-16 October, 1996.
Rakkit, Rattachumpoth. (1997, 19 March). The invisible women. The Nation, Focus Section, p. 1.
T
Andrew Matzner is a writer and indepen- dent researcher. Fie is currently working on a book about transgenderism in Thailand. He has put together "Transgender In Thailand," a web site of informational writing on katoey.
The URL is:
<http://home.att.net/ ~leela2>.
See also Mr. Matzner 's review of Don Kulick's Transvesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture Among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes, in Transgender Tapestry #89.
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Transgender Tapestry #90 • 27
by Katrina C. Rose
BROOPY, PINKY AND GALLY.
A Teletubby law firm? No. The Three Queer Stooges? No. They're simply transgendered friends from The Gazebo, AOL's TG chat room — folk who I'm sure you would enjoy meeting. Unfortunately, two of them died before I could meet them in the flesh. I'd like to introduce all three to you as best I can, though.
Broopy. How could anyone not like someone with such a goofy, play- ful cyber-name? Her non-cyber name was Kim. She was a veteran and a proud parent. She also was a pre-op transsexual who had transitioned by the time I crossed paths with her online. She was only in her mid-40's and was looking forward to living the rest of her life, but didn't get the chance. She died following a heart attack in January of '98. She was buried in the dress she had planned to get married in.
I cried when I heard the news of her death.
Later, a friend of hers mentioned that I was one of Broopy's favorite chat-mates from the Gazebo — and that I had meant a lot to her.
Again, I cried. And I still miss chatting with her.
Gally's full cyber name was Fern Gaily. She preferred Cheryl as a non- cyber name. As was Broopy, she was a proud parent. Unfortunately, Gaily found herself on the short end of an accusation of child abuse. She felt as though she was being railroaded toward a conviction and possible eight year prison stretch in
Pennsylvania.
Last March, she killed herself.
Of my friend's suicide, a Detective Joe Malloy said "It's an unfortunate incident because he was to go to trial and he never had a chance to prove his innocence." No, Joe. What is unfortunate is a cop not
understanding that no one must prove innocence. The state must prove guilt. Of course, when I saw Malloy's words, I thought of longtime Texas prison reform activist — and GLBT rights activist — Ray Hill's com- ment on Texas justice: "You're guilty until proven rich." That seems to be the standard in Pennsylvania also.
I recall chatting with Gaily about her legal predicament and feeling her despair — and I mean really feeling it. I was unable to help. I was here. She needed help there.
Maybe a lawyer could have helped her. Maybe not. After all, I can't sit here in Texas and say with certainty whether she was, or was not, guilty of any crime against her daugh- ter up in Pennsylvania. However, con- sidering the "guilty until proven inno- cent" attitude she was apparently fac- ing, I can say it seems as though it may not have mattered what she had done. She was guilty even if she was- n't guilty, and she saw no solution other than to take her own life. If Pennsylvania's prisons are even one percent as bad as Texas prisons, I can understand viewing death as being preferable. I can't lambast Gaily for suiciding. Instead, let the record show I'm angry at a legal system that let this happen — as it would let it happen to any of us un-monied folk.
One of the Gazebo's frequent vis- itors sent around a chat log of an evening when Gaily was in fine, lov- able form. "I don't need a savior, but I COULD sure use some ravioli," Gaily had quipped. I never thought of it in those terms (and, unless I end up liv- ing inside a Dali painting, I may never do so) but I think she may have been onto something. After all, neither ravi- oli nor anyone who worships ravioli has ever impeded my right to be me.
All hail ravioli? It beats "All hail Bob" by a mile.
Pinky is short for a cyber-TS derivation of Pink Floyd. She's a het- erosexual male crossdresser who lives and works in ... well, I'd better not say. As much as she would like to go fur- ther with her gender-based feelings, she works in a psycho-macho field that would not accept the real her.
Been there. Done that. Burned the t-shirt.
Pinky has been a Gazebra as long as I have. In fact, I think she was there the first time I spoke up and said "I'm transsexual and I have no idea what to do or where to go."
On a chilly morning in March, in an unnamed city near an unnamed river in an unnamed state, I sat down for breakfast with Pinky. Nothing fancy, just some tasty artery-clogging food and face-to-face chat substituting for cyber-chat. 'Twas an opportunity I never got with Broopy or Gaily. I'll never say that I didn't know them in "real life," though. Pain and happi- ness can be seen as vividly via 10- point chat font on a semi-blurry cath- ode ray tube as they can in corporeal 3-D. "Too bad we couldn't have all met in person," Pinky recently told me, adding, though, "They live on as long as we hold them in thought and heart."
Indeed.
Gaily was a real person. As was Broopy. As is Pinky.
As are we all.
Never let anyone forget it.
T
Katrina C. Rose is an expatriate Texas attorney now enjoying life in Minnesota, currently working as a law clerk pend- ing being licensed in her state of refuge. She is also a columnist for the Texas Triangle and the adoptive mother to two wonderful cats, Rina and Faith. She may be contacted at <MinKatrina@aol.com>.
28 • Transgender Tapestry #90
SCENARIOS
Male-to-Female Transsexuals by Dyan Hogue ^ Dating Pool
Transsexuals, crossdressers and transgendered people in general vio- late the clean “black or white” lines most people assume define the gen- der spectrum. It’s unfortunate that love, sex and genitalia have become so closely bound in our culture. The struggle for free expression of our inner selves leads most of us to think more deeply about the concepts of love and gender. Should the price of seeking love be death? It seems, more and more often, that most straight men believe this is the case for transsexuals who dare to appear attractive and feminine. After all, does one know it’s a “man in a dress” if it looks like an attractive woman? Maybe we should all wear identifying marks like pink triangles. Sound like a solution to you?
FOR ANYONE, DATING CAN BE an exercise in frustration. Imagine how much more difficult it is for pre-oper- ative transsexuals. "Neither fish nor fowl," the MTF pre-op is in a danger- ous position with respect to dating. I imagine the situation may be analo- gous in the female-to-male popula- tion, but I have no direct knowledge of that.
As humans, we all require vali- dation as sexually attractive beings. Despite what others may think of sex reassignment, transsexuals are still human. We need validation.
Most MTF transsexuals spend years working on their appearance so they present in every way as women. Getting sexually charged looks from men validates that presentation; however, deep down, they know in a sense it's on the surface. A common experience is for a male to be attract- ed until he discovers we are not what he expected. This discovery has cost some of us our lives. 1 won't go into the morality of the situation, but "gender normal" people often don't grasp the real danger involved in liv- ing free.
The problem with disclosure is the MTF transsexual is reduced, so far as the date is concerned, to a man in a dress. Even after surgery, disclos- ing our status somehow magically transforms us into men in dresses.
The problems with male-to- female transsexuals dating women
(usually considered a lesbian relationship) is that women who are looking to date other women usually want "real" women. The risk of violence here is less than with men, but the risk of rejection is about the same. Postoperative transsexu- als who identify as lesbian have a better time of it, as they have the equipment their potential partner prefers. This does not, however, ensure there will not be problems. Women and men alike have strong reactions to violations of their conceptual space.
When transsexuals do experience violence at the hands of their dates, it's unlikely their attackers or mur- derers will be punished with the severity they deserve. There seems to be a dark prece- dent in the court system which trivializes the transsexual and makes it "ok" to kill one if you feel your sense of self identity questioned.
▼
Dyan Hogue is a 39-year-old pre- op transsexual with degrees in English and Philosophy. She is currently working as a computer programmer and has been living "full-time" for the last eight months. She can be reached at <dyan@qni.com>.
r
Total Honesty (Immediate Disclosure)
A pre-operative male-to-female trans- sexual meets a man in a restaurant. They start talking and find they're attracted to one another. He asks her out. She responds by telling him, very gently, that she is a pre-operative transsexual.
Several things can then happen. The best case would be one in which the man is okay with her transsexualism. Suffice it to say, this is a rare occurrence. The most probable outcome would be for the man to say, "Oh. Sorry, I don't think I can deal with that." What often happens, especially in cases where alcohol is involved, is vio- lence. This can range from screams and curses to an attack that can leave the trans- sexual seriously injured or dead.
Delayed Honesty (Delayed Disclosure)
A male-to-female transsexual and a man have dated a number of times. Finding they have much in common, they've grown close. She has fallen in love with him and he claims the same feeling for her. Up to this point, they've gone no further than a goodnight kiss.
At this point, the attraction is more than just physical. He likes her for the per- son she is inside and not just because of an attractive presentation.
She finally tells him, "Before we go any further, there's something I need to tell you — "
The danger of physical violence is high here, for both parties have an emo- tional investment in the relationship. He sees her disclosure as an assault on his manhood. She sees his rejection as person- al, since he has had time to know her.
Dating a Chaser
Because of desperation or naivete, some transsexuals will date "chasers." A chaser is a male who actively pursues transsexuals for sexual relationships. This is one of the most common instances of the "best case" outcome mentioned above. The chaser is delighted the woman he finds so attractive is transsexual.
The problem occurs when sex reas- signment surgery enters the picture. The chaser wants the pre-op BECAUSE she has the male equipment. Once she has the surgery and is a woman in that sense, he loses interest.
V /
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 29
MANY PEOPLE ARE AWARE THAT transgendered individuals may enter into a heterosexual marriage after undergoing sex-reassignment. What may be less well known, however, is that a transgendered person may also be married to a person of the same sex. That situation arises, for exam- ple, when one of the spouses in a het- erosexual marriage comes out as transsexual and transitions within the marriage. If the couple chooses to stay together, as many do, the result is a legal marriage in which both spouses are male or female. Alternatively, in states that do not allow a transgendered person to change his or her legal sex, some transgendered people have been able to marry a person of the same sex. To all outward appearances and to the couple themselves, the marriage is a same-sex union. In the eyes of the law, however, it is a different-sex marriage because, technically speak- ing, the law continues to view the transgendered spouse as a legal member of his or her birth sex even after sex-reassignment. In short, mar-
TRANSGENDERED ELDERS AND MARRIAGE: The Importance of Legal Planning
Transgendered elders face unique legal issues with regard to marriage. Although marriage is not yet a legal option for les- bian, gay or bisexual people in any state, it is already an option — and a reality — for many transgendered people.
riage is a very real option for a vari- ety of transgendered people in a vari- ety of circumstances.
In practice, however, the legal validity of marriages involving a transgendered spouse is not yet firm- ly established in the great majority of states. Very recently, for example, an
... It is critical that transgendered people who are married become aware of their potential legal vulnerability and take steps to protect them- selves as much as possible.
appellate court in Texas invalidated a seven-year marriage between Christine Littleton, a transgendered woman, and her deceased husband. The case arose when Ms. Littleton brought a wrongful death suit seek- ing damages for her husband's death as a result of alleged medical mal- practice. Rather than ruling on the merits of Ms. Littleton's suit, the court held that a person's legal sex is genetically fixed at birth and that Ms. Littleton should be deemed to be legally male (despite her female
anatomy and appearance, and despite the fact that she had lived as a woman for most of her adult life). As a result of that decision, Ms. Littleton was denied all of the rights afforded to a legal spouse — not only the right to bring a wrongful death suit, but the right to intestate inheri- tance, to obtain her deceased hus- band's Social Security and retirement benefits, and many others as well.
In contrast, a trial court in Orange County, California recently affirmed the validity of a marriage involving a transgendered man. The case arose when the wife sought to invalidate the marriage in order to deprive her husband of his parental rights vis-a-vis the couple's child, who was born through alternative insemination. Lortunately, the trial court rejected the wife's argument that the transgendered husband should be considered legally female and refused to nullify the marriage. The court held that California law recognizes the post-operative sex of a transsexual person for all legal pur- poses, including marriage. Notably, however, if the court had ruled dif- ferently, or if the transgendered spouse had not undergone extensive and expensive sex reassignments surgeries prior to the marriage, it is likely that he would have lost any right to maintain a relationship with
30 • Transgender Tapestry #90
his child.
As these and other similar cases make clear, it is critical that trans- gendered people who are married become aware of their potential legal vulnerability and take steps to pro- tect themselves as much as possible. As an initial matter, transgendered persons who are married should cer- tainly act accordingly and should not hesitate to exercise their rights as legal spouses, whether that be the right to file married tax returns, the right to apply for spousal benefits, or the right to have or adopt children as a married couple. At the same time, however, it is also important to cre- ate a safety net in the event that the validity of the marriage is chal- lenged.
Although there are some protec- tions that arise exclusively through marriage and cannot be duplicated through any other means, there are also some basic protections that can be safeguarded and secured through privately executed documents and agreements. At a minimum, a trans- gendered elder who is married should have: (1) a last will and testa- ment for both spouses; (2) financial and medical powers of attorney in which each spouse designates either the other spouse or another trusted person to be his or her legal agent in the event of incapacitation; and (3) a written personal relationship agree- ment including a detailed account of each spouse's rights and responsibil- ities with regard to finances, proper- ty, support, children, and any other issues that are important to the cou- ple. The agreement should also include an acknowledgment that the non-transgendered partner is aware that the other spouse is transgen- dered, to avoid later claims of decep- tion or fraud. Ideally, the couple should draft those documents with assistance from an attorney and sup- plement them with any other legal
planning documents that are appro- priate for their specific circum- stances.
With those basic documents in place, transgendered elders who are in a marital relationship can at least ensure that the spouses can inherit each other's estates and retain con- trol over their own financial and medical decisions, even if the validi- ty of the marriage is challenged. In many cases, the safety net created by extra legal planning will never have to be used. In others, the presence of that extra protection will shelter transgendered elders and their part- ners from devastating emotional trauma and financial loss.
T
Shannon Minter is the Senior Staff Attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and coordinates its new elder law project.
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Transgender Tapestry #90 • 31
This article was originally published in Echo Magazine, 9/30/99.
FLYING A
PALINDROME
PROUDY
by Bruce Christian
PHOENIX, AZ—
She's flying the colors proudly: pastel pink, blue, and white.
Local transgender activist Monica Helms seized on an opportunity to create a Pride flag for the trans community, and after running it up the flagpole for reaction, the verdict appears to be in.
"The light blue is the tradi- tional color for baby boys, and the pink is the traditional color for baby girls," Helms described the three-color five-striped flag. "The white in the middle is neu- tral, for all those who feel they have a neutral or undefined gen- der. And no matter which way you fly it, it will always be cor- rect, sort of like a palindrome, a word you can spell from front or back and it comes out the same, like 'mom'."
"That is our way of sort of symbolizing our trying to find correctness in our own lives," Helms explained.
The trans community Pride flag concept was born earlier in the summer, at the annual Bi-net
conference. It introduced a Pride flag of its own.
"As a transgender individual and an out-front activist, my pride in who I am is constantly being challenged," Helms wrote in an August release announcing her concepts. "In all the GLBT movements, pride is displayed with various symbols. The Rainbow Flag has grown to be an international symbol for the entire GLBT movement.
"Recently, individual groups within the GLBT community have created their own Pride flags. I felt that the trans community also
needed a flag to rally its pride around."
Helms called the flag her "gift to the transgender community, knowing that no one has to embrace it. However, she plans to fly it wherever the gay communi- ty gathers.
"Like many symbols, some will embrace it and others will condemn it," said Helm, who has heard some feminists don't care for the traditional female-male color scheme. Helms said she respects that opinion, but believes the flag's design empha- sizes the ambiguity transgenders face with traditional male-female roles.
Flying the flag will give the trans community more visibility, which Helms said is needed, especially now that Congress is looking at an Employment Non- discrimination Act (ENDA) that does not include transpeople.
Because of that oversight, some major former ENDA sup- porters— such as BiNet and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) — have withdrawn their support of the bill.
"We really don't have any protection at all," Helms said. "If we are not included in ENDA, we still will be discriminated against, and it might take 30 to 40 years to correct it."
▼
32 • Transgender Tapestry #90
■
Being a GOOD Gender Therapist
by Arlene Istar Lev
This article is available as a brochure from American Boyz.
I HAVE AN IMAGE INDELIBLY etched in my mind: I'm watching "The Wizard of Oz" on television as a child. When the merry travelers reach the Wizard's castle after a long and perilous journey, they are met at the door hy a gatekeeper, who opens the peephole and says, "Go away!"
Therapists working in the gender community are often viewed as gate- keepers—powerful figures who can determine entry and must be con- vinced, cajoled, bribed or tackled into allowing admission. Clients often come prepared to their first session, armed with more clinical reading material than any other client popu- lation. On their first visit, my clients often present with a description of "gender dysphoria" literally lifted from a medical textbook. They are ei- ther terrified of me because I have the power to diagnose them, or furious with me because they need a diagno- sis from me in order to receive the medical care they desire.
Clients are right to be wary. Most therapists are ignorant of issues of transgenderism. for they have had virtually no training on these issues. Many therapists who have studied gender issues believe it to be a disor- der and an illness; a few refuse the yoke of gatekeeper, and approve all requests for medical referrals on principal, ignoring ethical guidelines.
Therapists working in the gender community are placed in an unten-
able position, — caught between the requirements of Western medicine's bureaucratic machine on one hand, and the burgeoning trans liberation movement on the other. The medical
Developing a healing and trusting relation- ship that starts from a premise of power and exclusion is a chal- lenge. How can I be a gatekeeper who is a gentle doorman, warmly inviting an of- ten scared and vulner- able client into my of- fice, offering a safe haven from judgment and diagnosis?
model creates categorical systems and labels gender folk with words like "gender dysphoria" and "gender identity disorder" and outlines arbi- trary distinctions between erotic cross-dressing behavior and "real" transsexuals who deserve surgical in- tervention. The trans political com- munity denies any model that diag- noses disease and insists on access to available medical treatments on de- mand from a system that inherently infers an illness model. The politics of a liberation movement, however lib- erating, do not often bear witness to the intensity of very personal human
pain in the face of gender confusion.
The decision to come into a ther- apist's office is rarely an easy one; it often represents a change, a step, and a move forward. I find that most trans folk who make an appointment show up for a first scheduled ap- pointment— unlike the general popu- lation of therapy clients. They almost always arrive anxious but motivated to "get to work."
The next task is to figure out what the "work" is. I'm a therapist. What this means to me is that I'm a professional with experience and ex- pertise in understanding something about human pain and assisting peo- ple to live healthier, more productive lives. I'm a family therapist who be- lieves that people are interconnected in a web of others; I see that our ac- tions and decisions impact one an- other. I'm also a feminist, a social worker and political activist, which means I see important implications in why people experience the kind of pain they do. I cannot limit myself to psychological explanations of human behavior, but am committed to see- ing the social and political ramifica- tions of oppression.
These parts overlap inside me, synthesizing a working analysis of my professional obligations. I believe living in a bipolar gender system is no less than tyranny. I believe every- one has a right to their own gender presentation and expression, and ev- eryone has a right to access appropri- ate and expert medical care. I believe our culture is at the beginning of a
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 33
revolution and that the transgender movement is at the forefront of a tru- ly feminist, non-sexist and liberating social transformation.
I also believe we, all of us, are deeply wounded from the ravages of this racist and patriarchal society. I believe those of us who are "differ- ent"— racially, culturally and gender- ly — suffer greatly. At its worst, the system kills us, institutionalizes us, and abandons us to poverty. At its best, we can heal; we can deconstruct the patriarchy's lies, we can reinvent ourselves in our own image. Good therapy is a tool that can help this process.
That I am a gatekeeper is undeni- able— I have the power to write refer- ral letters to endocrinologists — or not. I have the power to diagnosis people with mental illnesses, and who among us is not afraid that of some outside authority's power to decree us "mad."
On one hand, I can write a sup- portive referral letter to a client I've only met once or twice, who presents as a competent and articulate adult, who identifies as transsexual and de- sires hormone treatment, and explic- itly denies needing therapy — and the professional community will judge my ethics. According to the guide- lines of my profession, the nature of this person's transsexuality obliges me to three months of assessment and some kind of ongoing therapy; the diagnosis of transsexuality de- fines a mental illness that requires treatment.
On the other hand, if I refuse to write a referral letter for a client who wants to take hormones without his wife's knowledge or is clearly ex- hibiting psychotic symptoms and I'm concerned that she is unable to exam- ine the consequences of these deci- sions, have I abandoned the political call to arms of the trans liberation movement? As a gatekeeper. I'm ex-
pected to ensure nobody slips through the system and has surgical or hormonal procedures that do not meet the procedural guidelines. I'm aware that too often these guidelines have not really been developed to protect the clients, but to protect the medical profession from being sued.
However, I'm also aware that many clients are not aware of the im- pact of these kind of decisions on their lives; as a helping professional, I have an obligation to help people assess whether their choices will re- lieve their pain or increase it. As a therapist (not a lawyer or surgical physician), I need to have some kind of criteria to determine who is capa- ble of making decisions about gender transition and who is in need of emo- tional healing before they are able to make life-altering decisions. We can argue about one's legal rights to medical care, and we can (and should!) discuss who gets to "keep" the gates, but can we really argue that human beings in pain are not al- ways able to make decisions in their best interests, and that one of the tasks of the therapeutic professions is to help people sort this out?
Clients seek therapy for gender issues for different reasons. Adults seeking services for themselves are often of two categories. One group is people who have been dealing with some level of gender confusion since early childhood (or less occasionally, for a number of years in adulthood), and are seeking "help." They explic- itly seek out my expertise, either wanting me to diagnose them as a way to label their pain, or hoping I will not be able to do so and thereby somehow free them from a condition that plagues and obsesses them. These people are classically what the literature calls "gender dysphoric": i.e., their gender differences are caus- ing them tremendous pain and they want some relief. Sometimes I'm the
first person they've ever spoken to about this. Often I represent the first attempt to do "something" about it.
The other group is comprised of people who know themselves to be genderly different — either transsexu- als or transvestites who fit the pre- scribed diagnostic criteria in the DSM, or people who do not fit into any medical classification system, yet know themselves to be trans. Those in this group are often less closeted and more articulate about their iden- tity. They are often in less emotional pain and clearer about their options. Sometimes they also want help — managing a resistant spouse, or help in dealing with confusion regarding coming out to parents, or help coping with fears about how this will impact their careers or financial stability. Sometimes they just want a damn re- ferral for hormones.
Sometimes it is appropriate to just give the damn referral. Other times, it seems appropriate to ques- tion some of the unexamined issues in a client's life, to see that they have considered the impact of their deci- sions on loved ones or employment. Other times, people are exhibiting bona fide mental health problems, possibly totally separate from their gender issues, but more likely a di- rect result of the oppression and pain of gender difference. Telling a person in pain they are "oppressed" does not always eliminate their pain. Referring someone to hormones or surgery can increase the confusion and pain in someone's life and exac- erbate other mental health issues.
Exercising good judgment is the expertise of the therapist. Being a gatekeeper does mean I have the power to lock the gate and keep peo- ple out — it also means I have the power to let people in. Either way, it's a small part of the work I do. I am a therapist, and therapy is about help- ing people make healthy, empowered
34 • Transgender Tapestry #90
decisions to live their lives in the most freedom and happiness possi- ble within the confines of an oppres- sive system.
At the end of "The Wizard of Oz," you may remember the scene in which Toto pulls back the curtain be- hind which the wizard is hiding. The wizard says, in what I think of as one of the great moments of cinema, "Please ignore the man behind the curtain." Therapy is about opening up this curtain. Therapy is not mag- ic; the therapist is not a wizard. And most certainly, this is not Oz. Any therapist who is hiding behind diag- noses and clinical interpretations is just hiding behind a curtain. Any good therapist will open the curtain, and show you his or her face.
Gender folk have inherited a bi- nary system in which they do not fit, and becoming whole is no easy task. The work of healing, of deep heal- ing, is the best work we can do — not because transgendered people are gender dysphoric or mentally ill, but because the system is crazy-making, and gender transgressive folk have a right to heal at the root of their spir- it.
Indeed, it has been suggested that coming home to one's true spir- it is a shamanistic journey. In most spiritual traditions, one seeks out a guide before undertaking a spiritual quest. One client calls me a "transi- tion assistant," and indeed this work is about assisting and guiding. I think of a guide as a skilled person who is prepared for all circum- stances and knows the diversity of the terrain. Guides do not necessari- ly know everything that will be en- countered and cannot know the in- ner path of the seeker, but they can often sense when danger is near, or know how to prepare shelter in a storm, or lead the seeker to water.
I learned many years ago to nev- er go camping without carrying
GUIDELINES IN SEEKING A THERAPIST
• The therapist must have training in gender issues. This means he or she has studied transgenderism through courses or research and is affiliated with transgender organizations. This can be a difficult obstacle, since there is little training available.
• Many people with advanced degrees have little knowledge in this area, and some people who are very knowledgeable are self-taught. If the therapist admits to a lack of concrete knowl- edge, they must be willing to read and study, as well as be un- der the supervision of someone trained in gender issues.
• The best referrals will come from the experiences of other transpeople.
• You must feel comfortable with the therapist. This is some- thing only you will know. It may have little to do with the ther- apists' skill. This is about "connection." In order to trust and make use of your time, nothing is more important that an au- thentic relationship.
• The therapist can hold a number of different degrees, includ- ing a doctoral or masters degree in Social Work, Counseling Psychology, or an approved medical degree in Nursing or Clinical Psychiatry. However, he or she should be trained in a wide range of practice skills including individual and family therapy, psychopharmacology, psychodynamic and develop- mental processes, mental illnesses, addictions, and trauma re- covery. Ideally, the person should be eclectic in their treatment approaches and treat each client as a unique person, without fitting them into a predetermined treatment modality.
• The therapist should be aware of issues of sexual and gender identity and the impact of political and social forces in the con- struction of identity. A clinical and medical knowledge is not enough; a socio-political understanding of gender, ethnicity and class are essential skills.
• Services should be financially reasonable and confidential.
• Before beginning a therapeutic relationship, interview the therapist and inquire as to their degrees, qualifications, and be- lief systems regarding gender as well as more general psy- chotherapeutic issues. Remember that you are the consumer. If you are not satisfied with the therapist's expertise or style, find another more compatible therapist. Therapy can be a healing and empowering experience, so do your homework to find the right person to work with.
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 35
GUIDELINES FOR THERAPISTS WORKING WITH TRANSGENDERED CLIENTS
• Therapists working with transgendered clients must have a thorough understanding of gen- der identity issues, including information on the differences between gender and sexual identi- ty and the social construction of gender dimorphism. Therapists must be knowledgeable about the current DSM diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder and the most recent Standards of Care developed by the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association.
• Therapists must be aware of the issues being raised within the transgender liberation move- ment regarding the socio-political forces in the construction of gender identity and the limita- tions of a bipolar gender system, as well as the diversity of gender expressions.
• Therapists must have a general knowledge of mental health issues and training in eclectic psy- chotherapeutic techniques.
• Therapists must be able to assess for mental illness, as well as addictions and trauma related symptomatology.
• Therapists must be cognizant of the impact of stress on gender dysphoria and must not pathol- ogize the clients' stress-related symptoms.
• Therapists must have a humanistic perspective that supports the empowerment of client self- identification.
• Therapists should be knowledgeable about issues related to sexuality, sexual identity and gen- der role development, and be comfortable talking about these issues.
• Therapists should be sensitive to the impact of family systems concerns, including family of origin and current partners and children, and able to provide services or referrals for family members.
• Therapists should have resources available for clients, including referrals to endocrinologists and/or psychiatrists, gender clinics, and support groups, as well as recommendations for bib- liotherapy and Internet sites.
matches in sealed plastic bags. When clients are drenched in the rainstorm of job loss, partners' abandonment, complicated medical problems or au- thoritarian doctors, I can pull out my matches and build a fire. I can pro- vide a warm fire, and listen to their pain, and then listen some more.
Being a "good" therapist requires myriad skills. I can advocate for clients and help them build up the strength they need to advocate for themselves. I can be the voice of ex- pertise in talking with family mem- bers. Often, I can use my professional power to help people obtain other
services they need. Sometimes I must use my professional power to push clients to examine issues they would rather ignore. I'm often a fashion con- sultant.
There's nothing more important in the therapeutic relationship than finding a therapist who provides a safe space and feels comfortable to you — someone you can trust with your truths. You do not need to settle for a bureaucratic gatekeeper who will present a false self to you and who will judge and diagnose you. You can find a guide to travel with you on a sometimes perilous but of-
ten exhilarating journey. You deserve nothing less.
T
Arlene Istar Lev CSW-R, CASAC is a family therapist who specializes in working with the gay, lesbian, bisex- ual, and transgender communities. She is Sundance's wife and Shaiyah's momma. She is the founder and Clinical Director of Choices Counseling Associates, and adjuncts at SUNY Albany, and Vermont College of Norwich University. She can be reached at 321 Washington Ave., Albany, NY 12206. 518-463-9152 <istarlev@aol.com>.
36 • Transgender Tapestry #90
z' ~
Ruth claims my father was just a mask she was wearing, a cover-up persona which hid the real person.
That leaves me in a difficult posi- tion. Was I raised by a mask?
Did I love a mask?
My Transsexual Father
by
Stephen Vinay Gunther
This article previously appeared in xy and The Australian Newspaper.
THERE ARE A HUNDRED AND ONE amusing aspects to my father's sex reassignment; in fact, sometimes hu- mor is the only way I can make sense of what has happened. I mean, it's not the kind of thing you would expect of a staunch fundamentalist Christian, patriarchal 65-year-old, totally out of the blue.
When I first received the 40-page letter in which he broke the news, I thought, "Well, I've been through many adventures in my life. This is just one more." Although I accepted his decision, I nevertheless tried to convince him of the difficulties: why not try therapy; what if you regret this; look at the other transsexuals — by your and their own admission they're not a particularly happy bunch. But his mind was made up. This was his path to freedom, he said.
As my father started openly crossdressing — something he
claimed to have done all his life, in- cluding in high secrecy during my childhood— reality sunk in. His friends dropped away one by one, until only a few remained. He moved from the conservative Tasmanian community in which he had lived for 25 years to cosmopolitan Melbourne. Each step involved incredible courage, and this I respected greatly. However, I was losing a father. I was gaining — I was not sure what.
The whole thing seemed some- what campy and a little like play-act- ing. Then he started having umpteen minor operations — to raise the voice, reduce the nose, remove unwanted facial hair. My well-known and beloved father was disappearing, and in his place was a person I knew less and less. When he started talking about and seriously planning "the op," I felt a new dimension of intensi- ty
He began to deny his past. He ex- punged every memory he had, all the letters and photos and documents. He didn't want reminders of who he had been. This is probably part of the reason he — now she — became hostile towards me. She wasn't overtly hos- tile, but her anger was palpable. Perhaps my existence served as a painful reminder of the years he spent in self denial, living a dual life.
I felt, and still feel, a great deal of mixed emotion about my father. I'm happy he followed his own truth, and I admire his courage. But I'm very, very sad at losing a father, and a pret- ty good father at that. I'm entirely confused, because there is nothing left of the father I knew. A new per- sonality inhabits that frame, that dra- matically altered frame. Her name is Ruth.
Ruth carries a female passport. She has constructed for herself a fe- male past. She spends hours each day
on her makeup. She has a job as a childcare worker. My father had zero interest in grooming or small chil- dren. My father, the intellectual giant, the knowledgeable scientist, has gone. Ruth professes and exhibits limited intellectual ability, tending to be scatterbrained and inclined to- wards light gossip. She tries hard — oh so hard — to be female, spending hours talking about her idea of "womanly things": clothes, makeup, and how terrible men are.
As you might imagine, this is hard for me to digest. I'm a flexible, broad minded person, but all my tol- erance and intellectual acceptance doesn't help me come to terms with the intense emotional experience. Sadness, confusion, hurt — and, I have very painfully had to admit — dislike. I don't like what my father has be- come.
The dislike isn't primarily be- cause of the gender change, but be- cause of the barely masked anger at me, as if it were my fault that for years she was but a shadow of the person she wished to be.
1 could imagine my father dead. I could try to mourn, but although he is indeed dead, it's somehow difficult without the death of the body. And there remains a Pandora's box of unanswered questions: how did my father's transsexualism affect me growing up, how does it affect my sense of myself as a male, to what de- gree did it contribute to my parents'
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 37
difficult relationship? Ruth claims my father was just a mask she was wear- ing, a cover-up persona which hid the real person. That leaves me in a diffi- cult position. Was I raised by a mask? Did I love a mask?
Fortunately, I have 20 years of meditation and 10 years of therapy work behind me. My sense of self is clear, strong and resilient. I've also been a parent for a while and doing okay, so I know I'm not entirely fucked in the head. If the transsexual revelation had come before I had had children, I expect I would have gone through more turmoil about my abil- ity to parent. If it had happened be- fore I started therapy work, I would also have found it more difficult. If I had learned of it in my teen years, I imagine I would have gone through some fears about my own sexuality.
As it is, I live with many sus- pended questions, figuring that over time I'll be able to work my way through them. Or not. Maybe I'll nev- er figure it all out.
At times I look at it this way: I'm grateful that my father brought me into the world and I acknowledge he did his duty. He provided for me and raised me as best he could. Now he's moved on to a life of which I am not a part, and the whys of the whole thing are, and will probably remain to some extent, a mystery.
I would love to ask Ruth about the past. I would like to know details, to grasp what this strange thing, this transsexualism, is all about. But our conversations are strained and she of- ten cuts them short. Over time she has become increasingly unwilling to discuss the past. While I can under- stand how painful it must be for Ruth to think of the past, it seems strange that she acts as if it somehow didn't happen.
Transsexuals are often the object of lurid fascination or total repulsion or extreme discomfort or overt hostil- ity. Even psychiatry has placed the subject in the too-hard basket. The
psychiatrists have, of course, a label for it, but they've absolutely no idea of what causes transsexualism or what the remedy might be — apart, that is from the final solution, the op- eration. It's not a subject generally discussed.
Whenever I mention my situa- tion, there's usually a mixture of in- tense interest, sympathy, and incred- ulousness, almost as if I had been fa- thered by a Martian. A part of me cowers in fear at the way others might react, although in fact I always find support and warmth. A slightly devilish part of me delights in watch- ing the effect on people: "Your father is a what?" There's no familiar niche in which to place this piece of infor- mation, no set response, no social context.
I've found my ongoing therapy work useful in helping to unravel a few of the threads. I'm discovering how to let myself not be daunted by the enormity of the experience. Just as Ruth has learned to stand by what is real for her. I'm learning to stand by what is real for me.
My ex-wife has been tolerant of Ruth and supportive of me, but has gradually been turned off by Ruth's bitterness. My children have taken Ruth in stride: Grandpa is now Auntie. Ruth comes to visit once a year or so and is far more into spend- ing time with them than my dad ever was. Although they think her strange, they're willing to give her a go, and the younger ones enjoy having undi- vided adult attention. However, the difficulties they have with her are the same as mine — she is controlling, un- stable, passive-aggressive, and at times invasive. She tries hard, almost too hard. Her unpleasant characteris- tics may well be the result of many years of suppression of her true feel- ings, but understanding that doesn't automatically make her easy to be around.
Although Ruth claims she is for the most part happy in her new life.
she finds it hard to keep friends. It's hard to say whether this is due to prejudice, her adolescent way of in- teracting with others, or the under- current of anger she projects. She, of course, attributes all rejection to prej- udice. To her credit, she has been able to make and keep a number of friends who hang with her. She loves square dancing, and her enthusiasm has won her some respect, though she has of course had to survive some rejection as well.
With her 6 foot-plus height, large hands, and strange manner, it must indeed be difficult for Ruth to fit into the ladies auxiliaries. Nevertheless, she has found great joy in her child- care work, no doubt due to the ability of children to be unconditionally ac- cepting.
This story is of course not fixed for all time. Events occur which change my perception and experi- ence. I recently had a phone conver- sation which restored some hope of the possibility of an honest and re- spectful relationship with Ruth. I was more forthright than usual with my feelings, and she was more willing to talk about the past. Perhaps she's be- ginning to come to terms with her bit- terness, the feeling of being cheated out of her life by the expectation that she be a male; perhaps I am more ac- cepting of my own non-politically correct reactions.
Still, we just keep getting stuck. If we lived closer I would be happy to go to therapy regularly with Ruth. But without the support of therapy, we keep getting caught up in pain and mutually unfulfilled expecta- tions.
My best response has been to let go, to step back. This helps us stay polite and allows the possibility of connecting in the future. It's been hard for me to let go without feeling I've failed, but I've had to accept that I can't do it by myself. Ruth must meet me half way.
T
38 • Transgender Tapestry #90
A NUMBER OF PEOPLE HAVE CONTACTED ME regarding how to best deal with transsex- ualism in family members. I would suggest the following:
• Transsexuality, coming out, gender change: these are not limited to one person, but exist in a complex web of relationships. The dramatic changes resulting from a transexual's person com- ing out must be addressed as a whole. If there isn't sufficient support, it's extremely difficult for everyone. The entire family needs counseling and support — not just the transexual person.
• As with any major life change, transition causes disruption. Things are no longer as they have been. It's necessary to mourn the loss of what has been nourishing and to deal with accumulat- ed resentments. It's naive for a transexual person to imagine they can simply get some counsel- ing, have the op, and automatically become a new and happier person. The transsexual in tran- sition is in essence insisting family and friends change with them, and that's a big task. Although the transsexual person needs support, they need to be willing to be there for their family and to really be interested in how it impacts them. There's a need for support all around. — SVG
Stephen Vinay Gunther is a psychotherapist in private practice in Lismore, Australia. He is the director of a Gestalt Therapy training centre and lives in a spiritual community. He also teaches career development and the occasional clowning workshop. He can be reached at <sgunther@scu.edu.au>.
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Transgender Tapestry #90 • 39
First Event 2000
MY THOUGHTS AND MANY THANK-YOU’S
By Brenda R.
In the beginning years of Tiffany Club, First Event was a formal banquet held to thank and present awards to those rare people who unselfishly gave of themselves for the betterment of our com- munity and specifically the Tiffany Club. It has since grown from a sim- ple one-night affair to a four-day national event attended by people from all over the world. There are entertainers, pool parties, after hours parties, vendors, keynote speakers, fashion shows, make-up artists, electrologists, skin care professionals, and seminars presented by some of the most popular, well-known, and knowledgeable professionals dealing with transgender specific issues. We host Transgender AA classes at the event, we have couples' social gatherings, and much more. "Gawd, it must take an army of people to organize and produce such an elaborate event," you must be thinking.
This national event is and has been presented to everyone purely because of the unselfish desires of a very few who wish to see it continue. A handful of people work the entire four days of the event. Others work whatever portions of it they are able. Some help by running errands for all those last- minute things that pop up. The most surprising thing is, and I think you should all be aware of it, is that in the past the entire event was planned and executed by just one person, Debbie Hutchinson!
We do need help! So few are doing the jobs for the enjoyment of so many that this is a plea for help.
I would like to attempt to correct an oversight in recognition of the maker of our Founder's Award. For the past three events this award has been a hand-blown glass interior. This glass ball sculpture was created and donated by an artisan named Paedra / Peter Bramhall. Paedra / Peter owns and operates The Chatauguay Studios in Bridgewater, Vermont. Her hand-blown glass interi- or is as unique as we are ourselves, and I wish to thank her for sharing unselfishly part of herself with us.
Brenda R. is Vice President and program chair of the Tiffany Club of New England.
40 • Transgender Tapestry #90
Jo n e I , Debbie, and Ki m m ie present the TONE Awards
Brenda receives TCNE’s Most Helpful Award
Julie Johnson
Kate Bornstein and Holly Ryan
Michael receives TCNE’s Atta-boy Award
Taylor receives TCNE’s First Year Award
Stephanie receives TCNE’s April receives TCNE’s
Outstanding Contributor Award Friendship Award
Squirrel and Brenda ^ IN LOVE V
Randi receives TCNE’s President’s Award
Jennifer receives TCNE’s Miss Tiffany Award
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 41
r 1
MONICA F. HELMS
"Out?" I like to say I'm so far out I couldn't find the closet door with the Hubble Telescope,"
Monica jokes. Before starting hormone treat- ments, Monica joined the United States Submarine Veterans, Inc. (USSVI). A year later and six months into living full-time as a woman, she asked to renew her membership in her new name and gender. The request was not well- received. However, after two months of talks, they finally let her renew because she met the requirements to be a member. She became the first recognized transsexual and the first woman in a national veteran's organization with over 4000 members.
Today, two-and-a-half years living full-time, Monica is a member of GenderPAC, IFGE, NTAC, GLBVA, BiNet USA, and UUSVI on a national level.
In her spare time, Monica draws pencil portraits and writes science fiction. She has had short stories and a novel published. Currently, she works at Sprint as a long distance operator, having transitioned on the job after being there for seven years. Her e-mail address is <mhelms@webtv.net>.
L J.
ew Eng
48-year-old transgendered person who has finally found her niche in life. She is trying to network in the community to educate others to red and foster acceptance. She is going back to school in the culinary arts.
She attended her first convention in 2000, the Tiffany Club of New England's First Event. She volunteers at IFGE.
CHRISTINE FROST
42 • Transgender Tapestry #90
OPHEILI A AND MICHELONA DELONTA
Transgender Tapestry readers Ophelia and Michelona Delonta are incarcerated at the Marion Correctional Treatment Center in Virginia, where they have been active in advocating for treatment for themselves and others. Ophelia (who is also known as Michael Stokes #120047) has been in the news because of her attempts to obtain estrogen treatment, and Michelona (also known as James McCulley #257863) sued the Roanoke City Jail for the same reason. They can be reached by writing Marion Correctional Treatment Center, P.O. Box 1027, Marion, VA 24354.
M
f,
MICHELINE MONTREUIL
Attorney, teacher, and writer, Micheline is a strong defender of civil rights for transgendered people in Canada. A member of the board of the Coalition of Gays and Lesbians of Quebec, she has taken her legal actions all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. She continues to advocate fair treatment of transgen- dered people in the mass media.
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 43
C 'yrossdressers , "fcransvestHes, Z>ra% v/[rt'i&t&, ^-emate *] ppiJo crs>onators> / gander Renders: T/ldi stakes T/hade, Wessons jLearned / and A Ome static '1/Ko ments in the 80s
by Mariette Pathy Allen
In the beginning, which was 1978, 1 had no idea what the dif- ferences between these entities were, but I've always been attracted by the unpredictable. In New Orleans, where my husband, Ken, and I had gone for Mardi Gras, I met Vicki West and other members of Lee Brewster's entourage. [1] The group, all in "high drag" — evening gowns, high heels, gloves, dazzling in the bright sunlight, included one married couple. I wasn't sure which one was the wife, or why she was there, or whether this was all about entering a beauty contest, putting on a perfor- mance, or hooking up with gentlemen.
Through Vicki, who turned out to be a neigh- bor in New York City, Ken and I started going to parties, pri- marily at Lee Brewster's. I assumed everyone would be attracted to Ken, as they were when we went to Fire Island
Pines [2], and that I would be doomed to invisibility unless I had my camera. To my sur- prise, that was not always the case.
At Fantasia Fair, I was initi- ated into Trans Mysteries 105,
a class that met 24 hours a day.
Taught by Ms. Ariadne Kane and Ms. Virginia Prince, I learned to track the difference between gender, sex, and sexual orientation [3], and who was what and how to correctly refer to the members of each group [4]. Categories and defini- tions were important in the '80s; they helped combat deep-seated feelings of guilt. Now that the transgender community has become more self-confident, we've learned that self- definition is power, deconstruction is fun, and we're all part of the great sex and gen- der continuum.
But I digress. Fantasia Fair was euphoric, palpably in- toxicating, and full of contradictions. While everyone danced with everyone else at the three discos, some participants, anxious and homophobic, looked down on the female impersonators who performed around town. When perform- ing in the FanFair Follies, they felt they were giving expres-
44 • Transgender Tapestry #90
sion to their inner femme, and often picked songs that revealed profound longing. The revelation of vulnerabili- ty, the longing amidst exhila- ration manifested itself in other ways as well: a few par- ticipants fell off their bar stools or threw up in their rooms in dread over going home. There were tall tales about masculine derring-do: war exploits, companies run, children begat, and more weeping and hand-holding than I had ever seen in my life.
I was deeply touched by the vulnerability, but had trouble with the lessons on "femininity." Over the years, I sat in on sessions on scarf- tying, makeup, wig manage- ment, and "Color Me Beautiful" demonstrations— you know, those odious ses- sions during which an expert told you whether you were a winter, spring, summer, or fall and what colors you should wear. I attended classes on how women sit, stand, walk, talk, get in and out of cars, and even think. I never knew
any of this. At least, I never knew I knew any of this. In fact, I wondered if anybody else really knew any of this. I didn't like these representa- tions of women, didn't relate to them, and considered cross- dressing to get out of this role. But wait! Wasn't I with a group of rebels, people who didn't fit in with convention? It seemed there were conven- tions at this convention too.
Of course, in my later maturity, I realized all these lessons on passing were meant as safety precautions, and had nothing to do with rebutting feminism, or with me.
In the '80s, besides Fan- tasia Fair or other transgender conventions, I started going to drag events in New York. It seemed they were every- where: the infamous sex club Plato's Retreat, Night of 1000 Gowns at the Waldorf Astoria, The Pyramid Club, The Palladium, and the Drag Balls in Harlem.
Drag became an integral part of entertainment, as well as a way to make political statements. Talented tradition- al female impersonators, such as Bob Lockwood, performed Marilyn Monroe or Liza Minelli all over the world, while Ethyl Eichelberger and Charles Ludlum, founder of The Ridiculous Theater Company, created original pieces based on history or other peoples' literary works. Ethyl, who composed, sang, and played the accordion,
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 45
usually performed with a small company, except for the time s/he did "Lear," playing every single member of Shakespeare's cast!
Charles Ludlum, Ethyl,
Hot Peaches, Bloolips, and many others were gender ben- ders: they had no interest in creating a realistic illusion of femininity. In 1982, one of my best friends, Jason Deneault, gave birth to Lowla Lowrents, a sister to his friend Larry Vrba's Dina Dynell. Larry, a jewelry designer, and Jason, a former dancer, teamed up to go out to discos and parties all over town. As Lowla, Jason felt he was "liberating a space," allowing people to behave in ways they might never have before. When Lowla and Dina went out, men would flirt with them, women would drool over them, and they could chat with any celebrity. Brazen and extraordinary in presentation, Dina and Lowla were mis- tresses of the quick quip, the smart repartee. These alter egos spread joie de vivre wherever they went. They had a liberating effect on others, while providing a way to inte- grate creative energy into Larry and Jason's daily lives as men. In this respect, gender bending was as personally rewarding for them as cross- dressing is for crossdressers.
In addition to the creativi- ty, Jason believes drag was important politically in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. Drag artists, by being entertaining, could make statements about gay rights, or humanitarian issues that would be heard and remembered. They had
46 • Transgender Tapestry #90
an advantage over someone in drab, making an earnest, political speech. Drag helped people "get over themselves"!
As a photographer, I had very different experiences working with crossdressers and drag artists. Having seen crossdressers depicted in what seemed to me unflattering, unkind, and mostly untrue images, I wanted to change how others saw them, as well as how they saw themselves, so that they could be empow- ered from outside in-and back. My political and artistic sides sometimes battled for expres- sion. Personally, I liked being able to see the feminine /mas- culine combination at least some of the time, rather than just presenting a seamlessly pretty femme. When I did that, however, I was open to criticism from the community. Betty Ann Lind once pounced
on me: "You like androgyny!" Another time, someone flung her picture back at me: "That's a terrible picture — I'm not smiling!"
When I pho- tographed female impersonators and drag artists, I had trouble getting something I consid- ered personal.
These were per- formers, after all, and they knew how to pose and present themselves so they got the image they wanted. Since get- ting the same pho- tograph as every- one else bores me, I try to shoot backstage, out of the theater, or at an unusual moment. Even at an event like the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade [5], I look for a surprising juxtaposition,
rather than a picture of a cos- tume and a gesture. On the other hand (or glove), per- formers can be freer in experi- menting, less concerned about passing, and open to making weird art.
▼
[1] For a description of the profundi- ty of that encounter, please read the introduction to my book Transformations: Crossdressers and Those Who Love Them [Available at the IFGE Bookstore! — Ed.]
[2] The Pines, on Fire Island, is a vacation area frequented primarily by gay men.
[3] Gender, or how one experiences oneself: masculine, feminine, androgynous. Sex, or anatomy: male, female, intersexed. Sexual ori- entation, or choice of partner: het- erosexual, bisexual, homosexual.
[4] I won't even attempt this one!
[5] I am one of five photographers who created the book Masked Culture: The Greenwich Village Halloween Parade written by urban anthropologist Jack Kugelmass, Columbia University Press, 1994.
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 47
I R e v i e w s
TO BE A MAN:
“Boys Don’t Cry” and the Story of Brandon Teena
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At face value, Kimberly Peirce's brilliant film, "Boys Don't Cry" is the true story of Brandon Teena, born Teena Brandon, who created a male identity for himself and was accepted, and appreciated as male by the people around him in a small Nebraska town, only to be horribly raped and murdered when his biological sex was eventually discovered. The year was 1993. Brandon was 21.
It's the kind of stranger-than- fiction story that could motivate any number of really bad movies, movies that could deliver emotion- al impact in any number of simple, obvious, and ultimately cheapen- ing ways. How easy it would be to exploit the titillating, attraction/ repulsion dynamic we so easily feel for anyone we see as "other," any- one we define as radically different from ourselves. (See strange Brandon. See Brandon run. Run, Brandon. Run, run, run.) Or to manipulate the upset and anger most people feel for anyone who challenges our either/or, male/ female notion of gender. (Look at Teena trying to be a boy. Why does- n't she get it that she's really a girl? What do you expect if you act like that?) Or, from a different angle, to turn Brandon's story into a com- placent fable of good and evil easi- ly identified and distinguished, of cowboys in white and black hats, of the purity of innocence vilely
deflowered by a big, ugly place full of bad people just waiting out there to hurt the rest of us.
Happily, "Boys Don't Cry" rejects any such one-dimensional premises and easy answers, refuses to demean the power and impact of what happened to Brandon Teena by turning his story into either a freak show or a sob story. Instead, it offers us the opportunity to iden- tify with Brandon rather than dis- tance ourselves from him, to see complexity in both Brandon and his tormentors rather than just sim- plify and judge them, to see the connections between us and them rather than dismiss them as if they had no relation to us. It also invites us to think of Brandon's tragedy as something more significant than a random, deranged act of good boys gone bad — something that goes beyond even the issues of gender transformation and the potential for violence that lurks barely beneath the surface of small town, working class America.
In "Boys Don't Cry," nothing is simple, certainly nothing in a world of limited scope and vision that has no room for individuality, that scrapes the souls of its people down to narrowly defined, bruised shadows of what they might other- wise be. The film's multiple and conflicting emotional planes are sustained by the brilliant perfor- mances of Hilary Swank as Brandon, Chloe Sevigny as Lana
(the girl Brandon falls madly in love with), Peter Sarsgaard as John (Lana's other, occasionally psy- chotic, on-and-off boyfriend, even- tually one of Brandon's rapists and murderers), and Jeanetta Arnette as Lana's loving but totally over- whelmed mother.
Scene after scene takes place on several emotional levels at once, with love, hate, confusion, courage, yearning, hopelessness, strength, and desperation all thrown into the mix. We see a rich collage of conflicting emotions sweep over Brandon's face as he struggles to tell police the story of his rape in all the excruciating detail they demand. Lana shows us a similarly complex mix of feelings when she and Brandon are making love and she tries to reconcile the body she discovers with who she understands Brandon to be. In the space of a few seconds, we watch her go through surprise, aversion, and confusion before arriving at a fundamental acceptance, affirming the core of who she knows Brandon to be over the less significant details of his anatomy.
Even the villains in this story are complex, with John paradoxi- cally attached by his affection for Brandon, even after he comes to
48 • Transgender Tapestry #90
despise and rape him. "Are you ok?" he strangely asks Brandon after the rape, his rage slaked for the moment, as he, Brandon, and Tom sit together, trying to make sense out of what has just hap- pened. ("Yeah, I'm ok," Brandon lies, reassembling his tattered male pride with eerie dissociation, as if his assault has nothing to do with the man sitting next to him, as if the two of them were still buddies.)
If "Boys Don't Cry" did noth- ing more than tell the story of Brandon Teena respectfully, did nothing more than further aware- ness and understanding of trans- gendered people, it would be a major accomplishment. But "Boys Don't Cry" is more than just the story of Brandon Teena, more than just a story about what it means to violate society's rigid rules about gender identification. For director and writer Peirce, the real tragedy of Brandon Teena's humiliation and death is not that two crazed, small-town losers went off their nut about a gender-creative person they were unable to understand. Rather, as its title suggests, "Boys Don't Cry" lays the horror of Brandon's story at the feet of an emotion-denying, humanity-deny- ing, truth-denying definition of masculinity that saps the life out of all of us — women as well as men — ■ every day of our lives.
Brandon wants to be a real man more than anything. He gets into a fight at a bar defending a girl he has just met from the insulting come-ons of a guy twice his size. He risks his life and the lives of the others in his car dragging down a two-lane country road, on-coming traffic be damned. He plays the local game of trying to stand upright on the bed of a veering pickup truck (an automated ver- sion of rodeo steer riding?) because "that's what guys around here do." He drinks beer with the best of them. He is 21, going on 14, trying on the postures and gestures of being a man for the first time to see what fits, exulting every time he
plays a role successfully.
Call it macho — that exaggerat- ed, heavily codified notion of mas- culinity that boys measure them- selves against as they become men. It's the overwhelming need to be acknowledged as a real man, to be received as one of the boys, as a member of the lodge. It pushes men to do things they would other- wise avoid like the plague, things like working dangerous jobs at low pay, or going off to die in wars of dubious purpose. Anything to not
be considered soft, a sissy, a pussy, a woman. As a gender code, it's a direct route to the respect of other men and to the amorous attention of women, but it costs lumberjacks their limbs, football players their health, and thousands of soldiers their lives.
Whatever it is, Brandon's got it bad. He wears the bruises and scars of each of his rites of passage with pride because each represents a moment of self-definition, a vic- tory on the path to his self-realiza- tion as a man. He endangers him- self intentionally, even joyously, again and again, because his notion of what it means to be a real man gives him no other choice. Eventually, he dies because his killers' notion of what it means to
be real men gives them no choice either, no choice but to destroy him.
The one way Brandon steps out of the designated male role is in how he relates to women. Unlike the other guys in Falls City, Brandon truly likes women. He wants to celebrate Lana, not subju- gate her. He woos her with adora- tion rather than abuse, with ten- derness and personal courage rather than power posturing. His affection and undiluted humanity are novel and compelling in the world of Falls City, Nebraska. As a result, Lana and Candace come alive in Brandon's presence in a way that is otherwise impossible for them. They have an affection for him that their other boyfriends will never see. John, as perceptive as he is violent, catches it right away — the special twinkle in Lana's eyes and voice when she speaks of Brandon. He's the first to realize they are being sexual. And, although he sublimates his jeal- ousy into a kind of buddy sharing with Brandon, that is the moment when his relationship with Brandon begins to sour and, ulti- mately, disintegrate.
The Brandon Teena portrayed by director Peirce and a luminous Hilary Swank is as seductively attractive to us as he was to the girls in his real life. Sure, Brandon's a liar and a thief, but just about everyone in this movie lies — not because they are people of poor moral character, but because, in this world, the conse- quence of telling the truth to unsympathetic ears is just unten- able. Unlike the more conventional liars and thieves around him, how- ever, there is an underlying truth- fulness to Brandon that calls us to like him, draws us to him, makes us sympathetic to his dilemma even though we can see he is head- ed for deep trouble.
Brandon's infectious charm, beautifully expressed in Hilary Swank's adolescent gestures and winning smiles, derives from his
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 49
unprotectedness, from his emo- tional transparency, from his adventurous, blindly optimistic, determination to live life to the hilt. Presenting himself as a genetic man, he is something of an illusion, to be sure. But there is something unmistakably genuine about Brandon, illusion notwithstanding, and that fundamental honesty eclipses the lesser significance of literally telling the truth. There is, after all, more to being truthful than simply not telling lies.
Brandon embodies this deeper truthfulness in many ways. Most essentially, there is the basic way in which Brandon is being true to himself by daring to present him- self to the world as male, the way he remains true to who he knows himself to be despite the inevitable consequences of such a basic social transgression. Brandon is willing to endure the danger of discovery, potential violence and, ultimately, even death, in order to establish for himself a basic sense of personal integrity and authenticity. Beyond this, there is the emotional honesty with which Brandon relates to the
people around him, even as he deceives them about his sex and about his elaborately fabricated personal history. We see it in the straightforward way he expresses his love for Lana, in the unhesitant way he defends Lana's friend Candace from insult, in the way he even challenges John when he feels John has blamed him unfairly.
The truth to which Brandon is faithful is larger than whether or not he makes up stories to impress the girls, whether he lies to stay out of jail, or whether he has a vagina instead of a penis. It is the truth of emotional reality emotion-
ally expressed, the truth of being caring and appreciative of the peo- ple around him, the truth of being spontaneously and vigorously alive. It is Brandon's romantically heroic belief that the truth will make him free that is both his gift and his curse, both his undoing and the reason we walk away from this film feeling so affectionate toward him. Brandon's unflagging belief in truth, his unquenchable desire to forge a life in which emo- tional validity triumphs over fear and misunderstanding, speaks to something we all carry inside us. In the end, Brandon's yearnings, and the personal core to which he ulti- mately returns for meaning in a confusing and confused world, are very much like our own.
David Steinberg writes frequently about the culture and politics of sex and gender. He lives in Santa Cruz, California. If you would like to receive writing by David Steinberg regularly via email (free and confidential), write David at <eronat@aol.com>. He also welcomes your thoughts and comments.
50 • Transgender Tapestry #90
Deirdre McCloskey’s Crossing: A Memoir.
Reviewed by Miqqi Alicia Gilbert, Ph.D.
I. Miqqi Learns About Deirdre
The first time I ever heard of Deirdre or Donald McCloskey was five years ago. I was enjoying a one month resi- dence as a visiting scholar at the Center for Feminist Studies of the University of Southern California. One morning I picked up a copy of the Chronicle of Higher Education and began to read a fascinating and very sympathetic article about an econom- ics professor, more or less my age, who had recently transitioned from male to female. The professor was a very high profile conservative acade- mic who had been a life-long cross- dresser, and suddenly realized she was actually a woman. The upheavals this wrought in her life and in the lives of her family are documented in her memoir — but more of that below.
The afternoon of the next day I was with my friend and colleague, Dr. Richard Doctor. We had a pleasant lunch by the ocean, catching up and talking theory. On the way home I mentioned the article about McCloskey. That was almost the end of us, as he was so shocked he nearly lost control of the car. It seems he had met McCloskey at one or more CD events and never suspected there was
a transsexual hidden inside that fairly run-of-the-mill crossdresser. I'd heard the word "flabbergasted" many times, but this was the first time I'd really seen it. What got to Dick, I believe, was how much like ourselves Donald was: A fine upstanding pro- fessor with a good job, established reputation, full-fledged family, and a reputation as a real, get-your-teeth- into-a-position-and-don't-let-go, dare-you-to-challenge-my-views, male guy academic. And since I've been out crossdressing for years, the similarities were endless.
Later that evening 1 was alone in my apartment reading the new intro- duction to Janice Raymand's Transsexual Empire. That hateful, bil- ious, narrow minded pile of excre- ment (gosh that felt good) really upset me. The idea that people could not follow their natures, live their lives, without someone like Raymond fol- lowing them around throwing vitriol on them, saddened me deeply. This came hard upon my learning of McClosky's decision and how sud- den, surprising and certain it was to her. Would this happen to me? Would I wake up one day or realise in the middle of the night that I was not, after all, a crossdresser but a woman? Would I have to walk that tortuous path strewn with impassable block- ages, harsh critics, and costly conse- quences? Would my wife's cata- strophic fantasy come to fruition?
It was too much for me. I broke down and wept. Collecting myself, I made it to my neighbor's. Holly Devor and her partner Lynn, who held and comforted me and talked me down. No, I was a crossdresser; my path, though not an easy one, would not have to be Deirdre's. I would not have to challenge myself to see if I really had the kind of courage, the kind of strength required to truly and completely transition genders. The way in which I needed to be true to
myself was hard enough; it would not get harder. Yet.
Since then, I have become a spokesperson for the TG and especial- ly the CD communities. There is a dearth of out crossdressers, and my being public has allowed me to par- ticipate in the desensitization process the TG world needs: the more people who are exposed to our existence, purpose, and nature, the easier it becomes to move in the world. As people become desensitized to us, we become familiar and normalized.
Since her transition, Deirdre McCloskey has taken a public role. She could have disappeared, or at least tried to, but instead has remained in the public eye, which inevitably makes things easier for those who come behind her. The book she has written, a discussion of which forms the core of this article, is part memoir, part expose, and part politi- cal statement. It is a valuable, interest- ing and worthwhile book which has, fortunately, received some attention.
This discussion is based on two reviews I wrote. The first was for the Toronto Globe and Mail and has yet to see print — they worry about audience interest. The second was a fuller ver- sion that is scheduled to appear in The Archives of Sexual Behavior. It was an extended academic version of the newspaper review. Now I am able to write for my TG sisters and brothers, and writing for a knowledgable, involved audience is always a plea- sure. You already have the punch line — I like the book, so read on and find out why.
II. The Whole Story
When Deirdre McCloskey was born, a male child, Donald McCloskey, entered the world and began on the road of life. Donald was to be bright, handsome, and athletic. He grew to a broad-shouldered six
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 51
A FEW IMPORTANT WORDS FROM
Kate Bornstein:
" / remember when I was first thinking of the very real possibility of my going through a ::g asp:: sex change. This was in the days before tranny support groups. I steeled myself and made the long distance call to IFCE. To my delight, I spoke with a trans woman who calmed me down and pointed me in the direction of some deeper self-work prior to making my decision to proceed. It was invaluable advice. I owe a debt to IFCE. I think many trans-folks do. Maybe one of them is you ? If not right this minute, then perhaps some day ?
Look, IFCE is an organization that seems to rise above all the politics of the trans experience, getting to the heart of what matters to each of its multi-identified members. Wouldn't it be worth the mini-investment of a membership to make sure IFCE is there for all of us? I think so."
Membership
is belonging, is working for the good of all, and is your opportunity to assist others finding help.
The International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) is a leading advocate and educational organization for promoting the self definition and free expression of individual gender identity.
To this end IFGE values:
Individual uniqueness and dignity; personal wholeness; respect for human diversity; acceptance and protection of Human and Civil Rights for all.
IFGE strategically focuses its resources on all gender identity related issues by providing:
• communication between social, professional, religious, governmental and fine arts organizations; • open communication between individuals and encouraging communication networks among support groups world wide; • referral and access to competent medical, psychological, legal and other professional services; • a life line to persons and their families who express gender related concerns; • periodicals, monographs and other educational products; • a resource for information about organizations pursuing similar aims; • a response to individual, organizational and public media inquiries;
• understanding and acceptance of individuals who seek to define and express their own gender identities.
IFGE depends on your membership...
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For more information about the benefits of membership or the services we offer call 781 .899.221 2
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52 • Transgender Tapestry #90
feet, with his only oddity being a stut- ter. He succeeded at school and grad- uated from Harvard, going on to make a major name for himself in aca- demic economics as a conservative free market theorist. He married, had two children, and led an apparently normal, successful, and happy upper middle-class existence.
Only Donald's wife knew he was a life-long crossdresser, but as long as he kept it to himself and was very dis- creet, it was nothing she couldn't han- dle. He was completely closeted; only in the summer of 1994, when the last child had left home for a university, did he begin to dress more often and, at least at home, more openly. The need to be hyper-careful at home was always laid at the feet of his children, who must not, of course, be exposed to his gender diversity. This very com- mon demand that the children not know about Dad or Mum's true nature is very damaging to families and parental relationships. In fact, one can speculate that had this stric- ture not been enforced, the final out- come of Deirdre's adventure might have been different. Certainly, in the many families I know where cross- dressing is acknowledged, there is no sign of trauma, and the subsequent sense of acceptance can later lead to a more amicable result if things do become more extreme.
Donald's new sense of freedom extended beyond dressing at home; it also led to an increased self-aware- ness of his transgendered nature. Like any good academic, Donald began to do research at the library and on the world wide web. Discovering the internet and the large and far-flung transgender community led to his first contacts with other crossdressers and the discovery of vast resources on his "condition." Suddenly, Donald was part of a community with its own literature, mores, conventions, and even erotica.
Donald recognized himself as a crossdresser and accepted this part of himself. It was a harmless, albeit odd, pastime that interfered with no one, and this self-acceptance led to a more active crossdressing life. He used his
university conference travel to con- nect to transgender conventions where, for the first time, he could go out in women's clothing, interact with people as his woman-self, and meet and make friends who were like him. It was a time of blossoming, of dis- covering and exploration.
Sadly, his wife had more difficul- ty with this than he thought fair: after all, he was still discreet, doing things only away from home and on his own time. He did not leave from or arrive at home dressed, and was satisfied to pursue his activities at a distance, or, when at home, behind drawn shades. But it was more than he was doing before, and that was what frightened his wife. He'd never before stayed dressed at home for a full day, some- thing he now did regularly and felt his right. Her alarm was met with log- ical arguments that he was not harm- ing anyone and the rules society lay down about gender were restrictive and harmful. Why couldn't she just not worry, or better yet, enjoy it?
Most crossdressers' wives harbor a deep anxiety about the extent of their husbands' cross-sexuality. Many spouses considered within the "toler- ant to mildly supportive" range have a secret fear that their husbands are really transsexual, and that one day it will explode, and then their marriage, as they know it, will all be over. As crossdressing men grow older, they frequently show less and less patience for the limitations in which they have so far existed. Most have led good, productive and responsible lives, and begin to feel that they deserve more freedom, more understanding. Age brings with it an increased awareness of the fleeting nature of life, of the meaninglessness of doing what you ought to do when what you want to do is harmless and right for you. As crossdressers' wives watch their hus- bands mature and expand their activ- ities and horizons, the fear festers and grows that they will one day announce their transsexuality. What will be enough? What will be the end?
From McCloskey's wife's point of view, her catastrophic fantasy is exactly what happened. After roughly
nine months of his new, extended life as a crossdresser, Donald had an epiphany: I, he realized, am a woman. "That's what the crossdressing since age eleven had been about, closeted over four decades, confined within marriage. And the open dressing in clubs and at home during the eight months past, more and more; the womanhood was there beneath the surface and yearned to take form." Thus was born Deirdre. And the bulk of this book is the telling of the ardu- ous, painful, frightening, and enlight- ening journey she commenced with that life-shattering insight.
Crossing is an insightful and hon- est book that describes the feelings and conflicts Deirdre both endured and precipitated. Throughout, there is a heavy emphasis on the role relation- ships played in both encouraging and discouraging her conversion from Donald to Deirdre. There are really four inter-related themes. The first is how love is never enough to sustain marriage and family; the second con- cerns the politics of gender changing; the third, the sweetest, is about friendship. The fourth concerns "passing," its politics and dynamics, but I will comment only on the first three, and save the concept of passing for another time.
In the preceding paragraphs I intentionally projected from McCloskey's wife's point of view, because it is important to understand the enormity of the situation as it was for her. Understanding Deirdre's story also requires us to understand her family's. For many married trans- gendered people, changing gender means changing your role in your family's life — sometimes in such a fundamental way that there may be no room for you. One ceases to play the role assigned by the bipolar gen- der system and governed by the het- erosexual matrix under which it oper- ates. Mothers become fathers, fathers become aunts, husbands become — what? Girlfriends? Lesbian lovers? Neither of those was a choice made at the alter by the traditional blushing bride and proud groom all those years ago. It is not surprising that the move
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 53
to transsexuality not infrequently engenders a great deal of anger and hostility from the crosser's partner.
That it does not surprise does not mean it is not sad. It's a sadness because the gender crosser (to use McCloskey's term,) is not making a choice to be a man or a woman. The gender crosser is a man or is a woman even if not birth-designated that way or if not having lived that way all hir life. The gender crosser is only mak- ing a choice to survive. It is very sim- ple: A transsexual denied will die — always spiritually through the stran- gulation of the soul, and often physi- cally from suicide or depression. So the choice comes down to life or fam- ily, and from the crosser's point of view, there's no reason not to have both. Deirdre, having acquired the certainty of her true sex, could no more live as Donald than she could live as a Holstein cow. She was not a man and could not live as one. But in coming into herself, Deirdre lost her wife and children who, as yet four years later, still remain deeply estranged. She dreamed of accep- tance, of being understood and allowed to play an ongoing familial role, but was, is, denied that.
McCloskey shows great sympa- thy for her grieving family. After all, it took her 40 years to arrive at the deci- sion that her family needed to accept or reject in a very short time. The urgency one feels upon reaching that kind of decision leaves little room for patience or trial runs or wait-and- sees. The demands for explanations, the requests that one try this or that alternative falls on deaf ears. The real- ization that 1 don't just like to pretend I am sometimes a woman, but really am a woman, or, coming to believe that I am a man instead of someone who occassionally feels like one, leads you to a vision that cannot be denied or questioned once it is owned. McCloskey writes:
Why then did Deirdre join the women’s tribe? The question does not make sense because it asks for a prudential answer when the matter is identity.
Choice of a holiday in Indonesia rather than Australia can be explained with “I like Indonesian food better” or some other appeal to prudence, taking care, getting what you want. You are prudent, though, within an identity fixed on some other grounds. Asking why a person changes gender is like asking why a person is a Midwesterner or thoughtful or great souled: she just is (p. 177).
The successful lawyer who decides he is giving it all up to make toys out of apples, the stay-at-home mum who moves out for a lesbian lover, or anyone who is suddenly throwing over what they see as the shackles of a false life must expect that others will, in fairness, need time. McCloskey's book is honest enough that one can feel more than her point of view even while sharing her pain.
The second theme, which involves components of the first, con- cerns what McCloskey had to go through in order to pursue her dream of being herself. As we live in a world where gender is writ in stone from that first birth declaration, there is nothing so bizarre as trying to change it. This means there are myriad obsta- cles placed in the way of gender crossers: everything, from changing your name to receiving the surgeries that will make your life safe and com- plete, is difficult and requires consent from people who have no obvious reason to be meddling in your affairs. The gatekeepers, medical, bureaucrat- ic and legal, do everything in their power to prevent people from cross- ing from man to woman or woman to man. The immutability of the original decision is sacrosanct, and no one will go from one to the other without crawling and begging. You can get a nose job, ten face lifts, breast enhance- ments, have your tummy tucked, eyes done, and even have your genitals made more attractive, as long as you can afford it — but don't think you can change your "natural" sex without a fight. The gender defenders will stop you.
In McCloskey's case, the gender
defenders had an ally, someone who became Deirdre's sinister nemesis, attempting to pull strings and main- tain control of her life from afar by the simple mechanism of abusing the legal and bureaucratic gender protec- tion systems. This dark force was none other than her own sister. A psy- chologist at Harvard, she played a major role in planting almost insur- mountable roadblocks in Deirdre's way, including assisting in the alien- ation of her family. Twice Deirdre's sister organized her involuntary com- mitment to mental institutions on grounds of alleged mania, and consis- tently tried to prevent Deirdre's doc- tors from proceeding with scheduled operations by threat of legal action. In the end, dear sister cost Deirdre no less than US $25,000 in legal and other fees.
All of this, everything she did, was defended on the grounds that it was for Deirdre's own good. Obviously, anyone who wants to change genders has something wrong with them, especially if they decide it in apparent suddenness, and most assuredly if it is your own stable, macho, and established brother. So, dear sister acted on her own, using the paternalistic medico-legal bureau- cracy that makes gender diversity a sickness.
Imagine, if you will, sitting at a conference where a panel of three speakers has been organized to honor your work. You are still presenting as a male, but, indeed, plans are under- way for certain limited cosmetic surg- eries, not SRS, to prepare your transi- tion to female. In the midst of the pro- ceedings, while you are perhaps bask- ing in the respect and professional authentication emanating from your colleagues, two huge policemen insist you come outside with them. Once outside, they cart you off to a mental institution where you must, above all, remain calm and polite lest you be considered unstable or uncoopera- tive.
Deirdre's sister used a wily com- bination of her professional influence and the American medical establish- ment's terror of legal proceedings to
54 • Transgender Tapestry #90
twice have her brother committed, as well as scaring off various doctors and practitioners with whom Deirdre had already made arrangements. The story, as one realizes that it could hap- pen to anybody over anything, is nothing less than terrifying.
McCloskey raises pointed ques- tions, not only about the particular difficulties she incurred, but about the nature of the gender protection sys- tem itself. The idea that there is some- thing so much more profound and fundamental about having SRS than a gall bladder, nose job, face lift, or hair transplant contains within it many deep philosophical and political assumptions that go unquestioned.
People are haunted by the worry that “he’ll change his mind.” It doesn’t happen any more than changes of mind over gallbladder operations, but people worry nonetheless. It’s something they would darn right change their minds about— they can’t conceive of anyone’s wanting such a bizarre thing in the first place. It’s craaazy. Weird. The gender crossers must be nuts, they reason. Make him wait: he'll snap out of it (p. 190).
The chosen guardians are medical doctors and psychologists, often backed up by lawyers and govern- ments. The strictures and regimes are in place, even though there is nothing life-threatening in the procedures, and there is no correlation between someone wanting SRS and actually being mentally disturbed. McCloskey points out, through the pain and diffi- culties she endured, the need for a re- thinking of these procedures that begin at their roots with an analysis of the foundational assumptions that put gender reassignment in a class completely by itself. We need a deep examination of the assumptions that underpin the belief that changing one's gender is an unholy step to be taken only after the most rigorous examinations, tests and challenges. It is our societal view of the gender bifurcation that creates the problem,
not the poor soul who wants to cross over.
While Deirdre, to her everlasting grief, lost her marriage family, she discovered many friends. In particu- lar, she discovered the kinds of friend- ships that women form and the mean- ings that lay within them, and such discovery and learning forms the third theme of the book. Women's concern for each other, their demon- strations of affection and thoughtful- ness, from remembering special days to little gifts to hospital visits, showed her clearly the differences between the masculinity from which she was fleeing and the femininity which she knew was right for her to embrace.
Some of the most interesting insights McCloskey has to offer come when she is considering the differ- ences between her previous sex and her new one, and watching her learn, watching her pick up the subtleties and nuances is itself a lesson in gen- der ideology. Seeing McCloskey move from the brash, aggressive male acad- emic economist she once was to the compassionate and concerned woman she became is to watch a fas- cinating progression.
There have been, in recent years, any number of books detailing the differences between the way men communicate and interact and the way in which women do so. Deirdre, upon going full time, suddenly had to acquire the skills and techniques nat- ural to the "other" gender. Such a socialization can only take place when interacting among women, especially among women who are supportive and friendly and willing to help. When one indicates an open- ness, coaching is often available. (My own experience is that supportive women treat, at least, crossdressers, more or less like young girls who are in need of guidance and teaching. "Do you really think, dear, that you want that blouse with that skirt?" "Wouldn't you feel better if you sat up straighter, dear?") This coaching is just what Deirdre needed, and she was an apt pupil.
Learning to integrate naturally is not easy: what one has to learn
involves the rules for interacting with the different genders from the oppo- site perspective, and how to do so in different circumstances — social, acad- emic, professional, medical, and so on. When men begin treating you like a woman, it is both complimentary because you are passing, and instruc- tive because you are seeing the world from the other side of the fence. (For example, I learned very quickly that when crossdressed at an academic conference I had to introduce myself to male colleagues with my creden- tials if I was to be paid attention. As a man it is enough to present my name; as a woman I need to include my sta- tus.)
McCloskey's entry into the "tribe of women" begins with an epiphany, moves into high gear with an econo- mist's sense of planning and drive, stumbles against major obstacles, and finally settles down, in Holland, for actual living. It is in that period that Deirdre discovers herself and her womanness, largely through her interaction with other women who surround her with support and con- firmation. When she is with them, passing, (the fourth theme of the book,) becomes less important because they forget what she was and accept who she is. While on the street or in the classroom, there is always a sense of being judged; among friends one can simply be. Then learning and discovery can take place.
This is a book that is well worth reading, both to learn about one per- son's struggle to be herself, and to watch the unveiling of the gender dichotomies in all their subtlety from an insider's seat. Crossing may well incarnate the nightmare of a cross- dresser's spouse, but it also shows us how we internalize and reify sex and gender distinctions that then turn around and rule our lives. Freedom should be easier, and if it were, the nightmare might well disappear.
▼
Miqqi Alicia Gilbert is a Professor of Philosophy at York University and a life- long crossdresser. She can be reached at Miqqi@Gilbertl .net.
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 55
A PROFESSOR PASSES
CROSSING: A Memoir. Deirdre McCloskey. University of Chicago Press, 1999. ISBN 0226556689.
Reviewed by Art Grillo
There is a voice resonant in Crossing: A Memoir, a voice not neces- sarily masculine nor feminine, nor surgically-altered, nor "natural- sounding," but a voice much more distinct. It is the voice of your favorite college professor, the special teacher from your university days who instructed and delighted you and sometimes shocked you, someone who kept you awake even if she were just pulling your leg or spinning theo- ries a step removed from the course outline. I can imagine myself sitting in the class of such a professor, a profes- sor like Deirdre McCloskey. I can see her holding court, revealing, pontifi- cating. I can hear her words fill every silent nook and cranny of the class- room. I can picture this professor — this performer, as all teachers are per- formers— playing different roles, slip- ping on and off the hats of economist, journalist, storyteller, victim, champi- on. I might laugh as she tries on the gaudy hat of gender theorist, but I will pay attention. And perhaps halfway through the semester — once I've summoned the courage — I might even start to argue with her.
This professor has written the "strange" tale of a fifty-two-year-old man's transition to womanhood. McCloskey is a conservative econo- mist who teaches at the University of Iowa and is the author of eight other books. A secret cross-dresser since age eleven, Donald McCloskey married, raised a family, rose through the ranks of academia, and finally, between 1994 and 1997, became Deirdre. The transition began with a short appren- ticeship in the cross-dressing commu- nity, and included electrolysis, a bat- tery of plastic surgeries and voice operations, hormonal therapy, bureaucratic and legal hassles, family crises, and an SRS. By age fifty-three Deirdre was 97 percent woman, the
economist's own measure of perfec- tion as a gender crosser. In the process, she spent $90,000, lost the love of a wife and two children, but kept intact a high-profile career.
The economist McCloskey dis- plays a novelist's knack for story- telling. Her accounts of emotional battles fought with family members are vivid and touching, and illustrate how frightening gender crossing remains to the uninitiated, to those legions of folks from all walks of life who can't or will not understand; one of the bloodier skirmishes (and costli- est, from the standpoint of legal fees) McCloskey fights with his sister, a psychologist who tries to have him
declared insane. The book's surgery passages are painful to read, not for any graphic details, but because they are undergone in a healthcare system to which we are all subject. Crossing is haunted by ignorant, predatory doc- tors practicing in Gulagesque hospi- tals. McCloskey's story will move anyone who has ever received an inflated bill or been left stranded in a waiting room, or been asked an unin- formed question by a psychiatrist (If you aren't gay, then why do you want to change your sex?).
Her greatest service may, howev- er, be in providing something of a how-to manual to readers contem- plating their own gender transitions. Crossing is rich in advice, warnings, reassurances, makeup tips, names of providers and products, and prices. She takes something that for many of
us has been an impossible dream — the transition to full-time woman- hood— and lends it a dollars-and- cents, step-by-step reality. She is so thorough in cataloguing Donald's lia- bilities as a crosser (too tall, too old, too macho, too married) I kept think- ing, if he could go all the way, I can at least get started on electrolysis. Donald may have had a lot more dis- posable income, but I'm younger, and three inches shorter. And while my mother might take the news harder than Donald's did, I at least have no sisters to contend with.
Still, McCloskey's deep-pockets, pass-at-any-cost trip to the Other Side might trouble the progressive-think- ing reader, particularly those readers who couldn't afford a nose job — much less a full faced-reshaping. Her approach is too consumerist and too affirming of a gender binary that might well survive another millenni- um if we're not careful, if we do too much passing and not enough picket- ing. Her elite upbringing, in fact, occasionally made me picture Donald as a prince taught from birth to believe he could do anything and be anyone. To put it in, say, Marxist terms, the Chicago School economist who wrote Crossing is your basic decadent bourgeois individualist, her nascent commitment to womanly selflessness not withstanding. Marx- ists or not, however, we can only hope for a book now and then from work- ing-class gender crossers, such as Leslie Feinberg, author of the F-to-M novel Stone Butch Blues.
McCloskey's courage, not her position on the food chain, is what ultimately makes Crossing memo- rable, and yet when she writes about courage in gendered terms, the same teacherly voice that once enchanted me begins to ring untrue. Having demonstrated her mettle in many ways — buying clothes in drag, facing down smart-alecky clerks, coming out to the business school dean — she then modestly, or perhaps disingenuously, brands courage as something mascu- line and therefore tiresome. "Oh, yeah," she writes with bold-faced scorn, discussing her non-interest in "men's" novels. "Courage. Guy stuff.
56 • Transgender Tapestry #90
Yawn." But she also praises a female friend's "brave womanhood." This distinction between noble female bravery and boring male courage is just one of many dubious attempts to define and affirm the binary. (Or maybe McCloskey just wants to rip guys; she certainly rips Donald for his selfishness, his arrogance, his impa- tience. And she makes claims such as the following: "Men... are authorized to stare at women and make any pro- posals that come into their heads." She is forgetting the quick slap of shame many of us feel when caught looking, and the jitters to be overcome when proposing something as inno- cent as a movie date.)
Throughout Crossing, the author wades bravely (no gendering intend- ed) into various murky discursive
pools, stirring up insights and incon- sistencies. She sees gender as a perfor- mance art, likening it to method act- ing, and yet she uses the word "soul" to describe a person's proclivity to perform one gender or another. As Donald she spends tens of thousands of dollars on cosmetic surgery, and adopts an array of mannerisms and gestures, and yet can still with straight face say "It's not about fool- ing people." She proclaims "I am a woman" near the end of her "just-a- crossdresser" days, and yet later writes, "You become a woman by being treated as one of the tribe. Nothing else is essential." She criti- cizes men for their laziness, their vio- lence, their emotional distance, for their scowling countenances and their non-interest in Princess Di's funeral.
and yet she narrates a series of episodes in which button-down male academicians embrace the new "pro- fessional girl economist" with open arms, in many cases besting the per- formance of women on this score. The essentialist distinctions she tries to draw put her at odds with contempo- rary theorists such as transactivist Riki Anne Wilchins (Read My Lips: Sexual Subversion and the End of Gender ) and the more academic Judith Butler ( Gender Trouble). These writers might see female bravery and male courage as just so much linguistic and cultural capriciousness.
The third and final part of Crossing — other than a few last scenes of domestic drama, here featuring McCloskey's unforgiving children — is anticlimactic and at times self-indul- gent. With the girl economist now well on her way to 97-percent wom- anhood, we are obliged to sit through too many woman-affirming dinners and shopping trips with a growing list of girlfriends (saccharinized events she does warn us about in the book's self-critical introduction). She rips guys more, she makes more gen- eralizations about both genders. She subjects us to her poetry and, worst, to her chatty holiday newsletter. She offers unpersuasive analogies, liken- ing SRS to the removal of a malignant tumor. She poses unhelpful hypothet- ical questions: "What would you, a fifty-year-old woman, do if you woke up tomorrow and found you had grown a penis?" Since Donald had his from birth, why ask?
The waning chapters of Crossing recall the last hour of a three-hour col- lege seminar. Up until the third hour, things have gone swimmingly; you have been entertained, shocked, baf- fled. Mainly you have learned. But in the third hour you grow restless. You want to leave the classroom and do something else — plan your own crossing, for instance. Tacking the necessary funds, you might want to start saving your pennies, and in the meantime resist staring too blatantly at the irresistible Other Side.
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Transgender Tapestry #90 • 57
Although I had approached FanFair ‘99 primarily with the thought of promoting my novel, Tsing Lee, I soon discovered a mul- titude of kindred spirits.... In short order I found myself getting into the spirit of things. I enjoyed the intellectual challenge presented to me by people such as Ariadne [Kane] and Virginia [Prince] (i.e., “What do you hope to accomplish with this novel? “ My answer? “To change the polit- ical, social, and cultural landscape of America").
My biggest surprise, however, was the amount of interest I engendered as a “for- mer” cross-dresser of over 50 years. I felt completely at ease discussing my compul- sive/obsessive need to crossdress.
— Paige Turner
It was at Fantasia Fair that I saw him, at the Vixen, the lesbian bar in the Pilgrim House. He was a pleasant gray-haired man in a suit and Tweety-Bird tie, proudly stand- ing in front of a display of books, a crowd of crossdressers and transsexu- als and lesbians swirling around him and largely ignoring him as he stood there with a radiant smile.
Since I was involved in running the Fair, I walked over and introduced myself. He said his nom de plume
by Paige Turner
Reviewed by Dallas Denny
was Paige Turner and he was plug- ging his new book, Tsing Lee. He waxed enthusiastic about his work, saying it commingled elements of fetishistic crossdressing and transsex- ualism with radical politics and built to an apocalyptic finish in which the world ended. "Oooh-kay," I thought, picking up the book and looking at its lurid red dragon cover. "I did the lay- out myself, but 1 hired an artist to do the cover. Do you think the penis in the design is too subtle?" Paige asked anxiously. "The jacket designer thought it might hurt sales if it was too obvious, but I'm afraid some read- ers won't notice it."
I didn't see a penis at first glance, but considering the subject matter, I said, "I think subtle is better. Definitely." Paige beamed.
Regular readers of this magazine might know that Fantasia Fair is a transgender convention held every October in Provincetown, Massachu- setts, on the tip of Cape Cod. What was new about the 1999 conference, however, was a move away from the old "sorority" model toward a new open "Transgender Week" model, in which those interested in attending need not spend thousands of dollars; rather, anyone who wanted could come and buy tickets only for the events they wished; moreover, they would be free to arrange and publi- cize any event or market any product they wished.
And here, at the Tuesday night post-Sissy Show open house at the Vixen, was an entrepreneurial Paige Turner, exemplifying that spirit.
Paige promoting his book all
evening, smiling all the while. He was so absurdly cheerful that he tended to worry some of the attendees, who weren't used to anyone so consistent- ly pleasant.
Since I was one of the few people who hadn't ignored Paige and his book, he wound up having a drink at my table, and in fact bought a round. Soon he and my friend Donna Johnston were deep into a conversa- tion about military aeronautics.
The next day I introduced Paige to Rose Ryan, who was staffing the IFGE bookstore. Rose was visibly skeptical as Paige, wearing the same Tweety-Bird tie, spoke grandiloquent- ly about his book, but after he left I grinned and said, "Probably, it's hor- rible. Maybe it's good. I'm making no assumptions."
Shortly afterwards, I wandered into the Fair office, where Donna was busily talking airplanes with Paige. At some point I asked Paige why he had written a book with a transgender theme. "I used to be a dresser," he said.
Oooh-kay, I said to myself. Used to be.
Paige stayed for the rest of the conference, buying tickets for the Sarah Davis Beuchner concert, the Follies, and the other events, talking about his book but also eying the large-sized shoes for sale in the Fair's thrift store. It was clear that he was sorely tempted, but he never dressed. Nor did he seem to have any ties other than the one with Tweety-Bird. Several of the Fairgoers, afraid, per- haps, that he might be a trans-fan, asked me nervously, "Who IS that
58 • Transgender Tapestry #90
guy?" "Paige Turner," I would reply.
Toward the end of the week 1 found myself walking with Paige down Commercial Street. He was talking about his crossdressing, about how compulsive he had been about it, how it had messed up his life, how he was taking anti-depressants. "They're obviously working," I told him, think- ing of his perpetual smile.
As we passed his rooming house and he stopped to turn in, 1 posed the question that had been on my mind all week. "You realize, don't you, Paige, that there's no used-to-be about it. You may not be dressing at present, but you're still a crossdresser. You'll always be a crossdresser. You've sublimated your urges, pour- ing all your energy into first writing your book, then doing the layout, then publishing it, and now publiciz-
ing it, but the need to dress is still there and will always be there. You realize that, don't you?"
He looked at me, eyes wide, his everpresent grin on his face. "Of course!" he exclaimed.
After the Fair was over, after I had returned home and unpacked, I picked up the novel with the red cover with the disguised penis (I never did find the darn thing!), and started to read.
The careful reader will have real- ized by now that this is more a review of Paige himself than of his book, but for the curious, Tsing Lee was as he had described it. It started out in true TV fiction style with an almost magi- cal transformation, as an adolescent Tsing Lee became a stunningly beauti- ful young woman; developed into a chronicle of Tsing's sexual exploits
with both men, women, and other transgendered characters; and gradu- ally evolved into a bizarre political novel in which a nuclear war is orchestrated by the leaders of a pecu- liar underground church. It was liter- ate and readable, with more than a few of the clever turns of phrase and neologisms that mark a talented writer.
Since I am in general no fan of TV fiction. I'll reserve my opinion and say that those who love transforma- tion stories and strange politics should enjoy it. While Tsing Lee may leave the political, social, and cultural landscape of America relatively unal- tered, it should, for fans of TV fiction, prove to be a real, ahem, page turner.
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Transgender Tapestry #90 • 59
Ung pariserinde til karneval by Einar Wegener, 1928
by David Ebershoff ^
Ebershoff, the publishing director at Modern Library, has taken a highly unusual subject — and a big chance — for his first novel. That it comes off tri- umphantly is a tribute to his taste and restraint and to the highly empathetic quality of his imagination. His book is based on the real-life story of Einar Wegener, a Danish artist who 70 years ago became the first man to be medically transformed into a woman — long before the much better-known case of Christine Jorgensen. Ebershoff has naturally changed some of the characters, giving Einar an American wife from his own native city of Pasadena, thereby introduc- ing a New World perspective to the drama. — Publisher’s Weekly , 22
November, 1999
Those who have read Niels Hoyer's Man into Woman will know it as the story of Einar Wegener, a Danish painter who underwent several surgical proce- dures back in the 1930s in order to become Lili Elbe, his alter ego. I can't
speak to the original Danish, but the English translation is hauntingly written as Hoyer almost poetically describes Einar 's gradual self-real- ization that he is a woman and the steps he and his wife Gerda take to make Lili a reality.
It's a remarkable tale, one deserving of wide recognition, but Lili's story, although news in the 1930s, had been largely forgotten — that is, until David Ebershoff wrote The Danish Girl, a novel based on Lili and Gerda's experiences.
I received the advance publicity for The Danish Girl before the book itself arrived, and I must confess, I was prepared to dislike it. Perhaps because I liked Man into Woman so very much, and perhaps because I am frustrated by the common relegation of females into the background in tales of male-to-female transpersons, I was offended that Ebershoff had changed Einar 's Danish wife Gerda into Greta, an American. How dare this man toy with the woman who had loved Einar and supported him in his quest of becoming!
And yet, when the book arrived and I began to read, I could not main- tain my indignation. Yes, Ebershoff had transformed Gerda into Greta, but Greta was no one-dimensional supporting character thrown into the book as a convenient foil for Einar's transformation. Rather, she was a strong and independent woman, and it was clear The Danish Girl was as much, and perhaps more, about her
than it was about Einar and Lili. By the end of the first several chapters I was able to put my prejudices aside and read for enjoyment.
And enjoy I did. The Danish Girl, like Man into Woman is a beautiful book.
— Dallas Denny
Interview with David Ebershoff
David Ebershoff is the author of the
remarkable new novel The Danish Girl. Your editor interviewed him via the internet.
TAPESTRY: How did you discover the story of Einar and Gerda Wegener?
EBERSHOFF: A few years ago I began flipping through a book a friend had sent me. Buried in its pages, paren- thetically, in fact, was a short para- graph about Einar Wegener. I had always thought Christine Jorgensen, an American GI from Brooklyn, had been the first man to surgically change to woman. Something in this tangential paragraph made me curi- ous. Why was this person forgotten from history? Who was he? Who was his wife? How did such a transforma- tion affect their marriage?
TT: When you first came across that reference to Lili Elbe, the one that intrigued you, and began to follow up on it, I would expect you straight- away came across Niels Hoyer's evocative biography, Man into Woman. Was that the first thing you found? What other materials did you locate, and how did you find them? How much did they tell you about the lives
60 • Transgender Tapestry #90
of Gerda and Einar Wegener and Lili Elbe?
DE: Man into Woman — Lili Elbe's diaries and correspondence, which Niels Hoyer edited — was not the first book I came across while researching The Danish Girl, although certainly it turned out to be the most important source for my research. The novel is without a doubt indebted to it. The other important sources that were important were the newspaper accounts of Wegener's transformation into Lili. This was a big story in 1930 and 1931, and it was reported widely in Europe and to a lesser degree in America. I also found limited infor- mation about Wegener in other books written about transgendered men and women, as well as in medical books that deal with sexual topics. But these sources tended to focus on the clinical details of Einar Wegener and Lili Elbe: the three surgeries at the Dresden Municipal Women's Clinic; the mys- terious bleeding that preceded the surgeries; Einar 's pair of underdevel- oped ovaries buried in his abdomen. Not much could provide me with rich detail about the way Einar and his wife and Lili Elbe lived their lives. That's why I had to go to Europe to write this book.
TT : How many times did you visit Europe while researching the novel?
DE: I made three trips. First 1 visited Copenhagen, where I researched at the Royal Library. There 1 saw an original Danish edition of the diaries, and read on microfiche (with the help of a translator) the accounts of Einar and Lili's story as recounted in the Danish press. One newspaper in par- ticular, Politiken, covered the story extensively and very sympathetically. Those articles — a few of them full of detail and penned by Lili Elbe but published under a pseudonym — were very important sources for The Danish Girl. These press accounts, published in 1931, were the first time the world could read about what happened to Einar Wegener and who Lili Elbe was.
They describe Einar 's gradual self- realization, the many futile visits to various ill-informed doctors, and Einar's eventual journey to the Dresden Municipal Women's Clinic. Part of what is described in Man into Woman first ran in Politiken.
While in Copenhagen I also visit- ed the Royal Academy of Arts, where both Einar and Gerda Wegener were students. In my novel Wegener's wife is Greta, but in actuality her name was Gerda. The Academy maintains a library on Danish artists, and this is where I first read of Gerda's success- ful career, and the extent to which her
paintings of Lili Elbe brought her acclaim. In the library's files I first saw some of the many images of Gerda Wegener's paintings, as well as read more details of her life: how she would have her husband paint the backgrounds of her paintings; about her successful career in Paris illustrat- ing for fashion magazines such as Vogue; about her highly modern artis- tic style, which was in contrast to the 19th century style of Einar Wegener. This same trip to Copenhagen I retraced Einar and Gerda's footsteps, visiting the neighborhood of Nyhavns Kanal where they lived and the park, Kongens Have, where they would stroll late on mid-summer nights. I hunted the Copenhagen flea
market for old maps and picture books portraying images of the streets of Copenhagen and the Danish bogs in the early part of the 20th century.
My research took me back to Europe two other times. In Dresden a boxy cement building houses the Dresden Hygiene Museum, a creaky institution poorly funded, but perpet- uated by the Communists. Now it sits dusty, waiting for the few visitors it receives each day. Its small library provided me with further details of Wegener's transformation and of material life in Dresden in 1930 and 1931: the elegant arc of the Elbe River; the limestone stone facades of city now destroyed; the cast of gloom as Germany lurched into its darkest time.
Another trip took me to Paris, where I visited the medical clinics at which Einar and Greta first sought help. That same trip I returned to Copenhagen for further information about Einar and Greta and to see some of their artwork, especially the candy-bright paintings painted by Greta of her husband dressed as Lili. One of those paintings is on the spine and back jacket of the American edi- tion of the novel.
TT : Did you have a chance to see any of Einar or Gerda's original paint- ings?
DE: Yes. A museum in Copenhagen has had an exhibition of about 70 of Gerda Wegener's paintings up for several months. Through my research I got to know the head of the muse- um, and he showed me several of the paintings he was curating for the show. Many of the paintings are in private hands, but some of their own- ers have showed me their paintings, some of which have been out of pub- lic view since they were originally executed.
TT: Man into Woman is illustrated with several of Gerda Wegener's Lili paintings. In real life, did Gerda paint Lili as extensively as did Greta in your book?
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 61
DE: She did dozens of paintings of Lili, as well as many sketches. But in real life her career didn't rest entirely on her Lili paintings. She was also a prolific illustrator for the fashion magazines of Paris, as well as a high- end pornographer. Her art is Art Deco in style, very modern, and had been out of fashion until the last ten years. Currently, there is a great demand for her paintings in Europe, and they have sold for as much as $250,000.
TT: You mention in your Afterword that of necessity you made up some of the particulars of the novel. Could you give an example or two about what in the book the reader might think is fiction but is real and what the reader might think is real but is fic- tion?
DE: The novel, by its very definition, is an invention of my imagination. I decided to write this story as fiction because I wanted to retell it in a way that evoked the complicated emotions of both Einar and Gerda Wegener. One detail in the book that might seem fictional but is actually true is Einar's mysterious bleeding. For sev- eral years prior to his surgeries, he did in fact suffer from a periodic bleeding from his nose and anus. It wasn't monthly, but almost, and Einar came to believe in this hemorrhaging
as a sort of symbolic menstruation. In fact it was the result of the pair of rudimentary ovaries in his abdomen, which his doctor in Dresden discov- ered. This fact seems like the detail a writer of magical realism might invent, but it's true.
Something in the novel that might seem true but is invented is the char- acter of Hans. In reality, Wegener had no boyhood friend with whom he was uncommonly close and who became an important figure in his adult life. But I wanted to create a past for Einar which could help give context to his present situation.
TT: Did Gerda and Lili actually live for a time in Paris?
DE: Yes, not in the Marais, but on the left bank, off St-Germain-des-Pres. Paris was a freeing environment for Einar and Lili, and especially freeing for Gerda and her art. She had an eas- ier time as a female artist in Paris than in Copenhagen.
TT: In real life, did Gerda have a rela- tionship after Einar became Lili but before her death? What about in Gerda's later life? Did she remarry?
DE: Yes, Gerda actually remarried before Lili died. She married an Italian army officer and moved to the north of Italy. Gerda lived for about seven or eight years longer than Lili, dying in the late 1930s, just before the outbreak of World War II.
TT : In actuality, did Lili leave the clin- ic and function in society for a time between the second and third opera- tions?
DE: Lili's first operations were in 1930, and after her recovery she returned to Copenhagen and had about 6 or 9 months of life as a young woman in Denmark before she returned to Dresden for her final operation, the one that arguably killed her. She didn't ever fully func- tion in society, however, because when word got out about her story she was hounded by the world media.
and she had to go into a sort of hiding. She never took a job, as Lili does in my novel. But I didn't want to write about the media frenzy because, to me, that is very uninteresting and generally reduces a person to a carica- ture of themselves. I wanted to write about the few months when Lili might have felt most accepted and self-accepting.
TT: Did Lili had relationships with men?
DE: She fell in love with a man in the last year of her life, a man who asked her to marry him. However, I do not know if that love was ever consum- mated. Something makes me suspect it was not, in part because her surg- eries were so crude that she was con- stantly in pain after them. But per- haps.
TT: What do you think caused her death? A rejected uterus transplant, as in your book?
DE: The first operations, in 1930, left Lili with terrible pain, which she bore bravely. When she returned to Dresden in 1931 for a final operation, she was already fairly weak. There is some speculation about what the final operation was. I have read that it was to construct a vagina. But I have also
62 • Transgender Tapestry #90
read a few things that led me to believe that the doctor's final opera- tion was more drastic, like the trans- plant of a uterus. This doctor was skilled at transplants and interested in experimenting with them; he had also promised Lili that he could make her fertile. Based on this I've speculat- ed that he attempted a uterine trans- plant— an operation that can go horri- bly wrong. But my speculation cannot be taken as fact.
TT : When you were in Dresden did you perchance attempt to seek out Lili's grave? If so, was it still there? I ask this more for myself than for our readers. I used the picture of her tombstone from Man into Woman as the frontispiece for one of my books. I expect that because of the fierce Allied firebombing it's been gone these 50 or so years, but I'd very much like to know for sure.
DE: I went to Dresden for four or five days in April, 1998, and attempted to find her grave, but could not. The clinic doesn't exist as it did in the 1930s, and the city itself has, of course, fundamentally changed. An important thing to remember about a mass destruction like the Dresden fire-bombing is that not only was the city leveled, but most of its records — the letters, files, and clippings that provide details of the millions of lives lived there — burned on those horrible nights in the spring of 1945.
TT: Your concluding paragraphs are quite ambiguous. They leave Lili, deathly ill, in a wheelchair in Dresden, abandoned temporarily by Carlisle and Anna. What do you sup- pose the reader will assume here? That Lili will recover? That she will die? Why did you choose to end this way?
DE: You're absolutely right. The novel ends ambiguously. Readers have told me they find the ending sad, while others have told me it is hopeful. There is no correct interpretation. I wrote it ambiguously because I feel it's more subtle, and that subtlety was
very important to writing this novel. The novels 1 like to read generally have endings that open up the story as much as close them; I like it when a writer allows the reader to make some conclusions for him or herself, and that is why the novel concludes this way.
TT: Niels Hoyer makes it quite clear in Man into Woman that Einar and Lili were separate and distinct. He remarks, for example, about the dra- matic difference between Einar 's pre- surgical handwriting and Lili's post- operative handwriting. Do you think Einar and Lili were such different per- sonalities in real life as they are in the book? Do you suppose that's true of transsexual people today?
DE: I wrote The Danish Girl to explore the subtlety of a transgendered per- son's experience. I believe Einar and Lili were not two distinct people— that would imply that there was no evolution from one to the other. This is indeed different from how Einar and Lili are portrayed in Man into Woman. My novel, of course, is not meant to represent the experiences of all transgendered people, just one transgendered person, who hap- pened to be the first. My job as a nov- elist was to describe and detail as deftly as I could one person's life, not the lives of a whole set of people in society. Therefore, I cannot say whether or not transsexual people today have totally distinct lives from that of who they were before their surgeries. However, I believe general- ly things aren't that black and white; that transgendered people, like every- one else, are made up of subtle shad- ings of experience and history; that what happened to us as children will, no matter what, impact who we are as adults, even if one has changed his or her gender.
TT: Often, in writings about MTF transgendered people, natal females are relegated to supportive positions, their power removed, made invisible. When I read in your promotional material that you had changed
Gerda's name and made her an American, I assumed the worst — but Greta was someone I could relate to, someone with a strong personality, a real person, much more colorful than either Einar or Lili. The Danish Girl is Greta's story as much — more, even — than Lili's. Did you intend this from the beginning, or did the character just develop that way?
DE: Again, you're right. Greta is in many ways the outsized character of the novel, and in some ways this book is her story. Developing her character took a couple of years writing and rewriting, filling in the details, so I was not exactly sure just how strong, how fascinating she was when I began to write the book. But over and over I kept asking myself what kind of woman would do this for her hus- band? What kind of woman could understand her husband so thorough- ly, perhaps even better than he under- stood himself? I wanted to write the book as a love story, the exploration of a marriage that undergoes a funda- mental change. The novel asks the question that everyone has at least once faced: what do you do when the person you love changes? It's a defin- ing question for all relationships, but especially when one half of the couple is a transgendered person.
TT: And finally (bet you're glad!): I've heard there's a bidding war for the screen rights. Do you think we'll see Lili and Greta one day soon in a motion picture?
DE: There have been offers for the movie rights, but as of right now I've not struck a deal. A movie version of The Danish Girl would require a direc- tor with a subtle vision and an ability to create a world on the screen where the characters are real and intelligent and humanly flawed. I care deeply about Einar Wegener, Lili Elbe, and Greta Waud, and I hope the film ver- sion of their lives can portray them as the brave, passionate, and complex people they were.
▼
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 63
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Heidi stopped in her tracks. She knew Max was sup- posed to be big, but this was huge! The concierge at the hotel had told her that if she was looking for fabrics. Max on the Champs Elysees was the place to go, but of course she knew that; it was why she had come to Paris. Now she faced a sea of colors. There were rolls of fabric every- where, and this was only the ground floor.
"Vous cherchez quelque chose. Mademoiselle?"
Heidi turned to the saleslady and shook her head. "No, thank you."
"How long have I been staring like this?" Heidi wondered. She could feel herself blushing. She walked over to a table with fabrics that were on sale and started to browse.
Heidi was oblivious to every- thing around her. No, of course not everything — she was aware of being engulfed in a seemingly endless sea of glorious fabrics. As a passionate dressmaker, she felt like Scrooge McDuck swimming in his vault filled with money She was unaware of the lady standing
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next to her, trying in a typical French discreet manner to get her attention.
While her hands were brows- ing robot-like through the fabrics in the sales bin, her mind had taken her back to that day in her mother's sewing room almost fif- teen years ago.
***
"Have you finished winding the bobbins for me, Hans?"
"Yes, Mother."
"Thank you, Hans. Well, why don't you go out and play. It's such a lovely day!"
"I will in a little while. Mother."
As a child, one of Heidi's favorite things was to page through the many fashion maga- zines in the big box in the corner of the room — Burda, Elle, and many more. That day in particular, she was fascinated by an article on the great fabric house of Paris. In the article there was a picture of Max on the Champs Elysqes that got her attention. Maybe it was the lens the photographer had used, but the store seemed to stretch out for miles — a literal sea of fabrics. She just know that one day she would go and see Max's.
"Hans, are you still here? When are you going to play? You know your father doesn't want you to spend so much time indoors!"
"Yes, Mother, I'm going now.... Mother, have you ever been to
Max's? It is so huge!"
"What on earth are you talking about, Hans?" She glanced quickly at the picture in the magazine. "Of course not, silly. That's in Paris! Whatever are you thinking? Now out with you!"
***
"E ... e ... Mademoiselle!" The lady touched Heidi lightly on the arm.
A startled Heidi came back to reality.
"O, pardonnez moi. I did not mean to startle you!"
"Non, non, it's nothing. I guess I was daydreaming."
"Yes, I could see that," replied the lady, with a smile, "but I was hoping you could give me your opinion."
The lady was only a few years older than Heidi, and quite chic — but then it seemed to Heidi that all the French women were fashion- able. The lady had laid out two rolls of fabric on top of the pile in the sale bin and she had a pattern in her hand.
"I would like to make this dress," she said, as she pointed to the picture on the pattern enve- lope, "but I can't make up my mind about these fabrics."
Heidi took the envelope to look closer at the picture and the details on the back cover. It was a party dress for a girl six to eight years old.
"But this is absolutely adorable! What a beautiful dress!"
64 • Transgender Tapestry #90
she exclaimed.
"Yes, I fell in love with it too," replied the lady. "So, what do you think?"
Heidi looked at the two rolls of fabric, touching both in turn to try the feel and to test if they would crease easily. She tried to picture what the dress would look like.
"Well, they're both nice, but..."
"But what?"
"Oh, I don't know. Such a beautiful dress. You must make it with something more special," said Heidi hesitantly, not wanting to hurt the lady's feelings.
"Yes, you're right. But these fabrics are such a bargain!"
Then Heidi remembered some- thing she had seen when she entered the store. "I have just the thing for you. Viens avec moi!"
Heidi was bubbling with excitement as she virtually ran to the store entrance. The lady seemed somewhat surprised that Heidi had switched to familiar
"tu-toi" French, but she was affect- ed by Heidi's sudden burst of excitement. So, she simply lifted her eyebrows and followed Heidi.
"This is IT! Isn't it just gor- geous?" asked Heidi.
There on the "specials" dis- play stand was a beautiful, expen- sive chiffon. It was white, with a delicate background pattern in light pink.
"Isn't it just magical? It's just made for your pattern. And look at the background pattern! You could pick up the color in your acces- sories. See the ribbons and belt?" Heidi was pointing to the picture on the lady's pattern. "You should use a velvet ribbon in vieux rose! And pale pink-white lace around the neck. Oooh, I'm so excited! And there's a discount on it also."
Heidi had to stop to catch her breath. The lady seemed enthralled by the beautiful fabric. Heidi's excitement was conta- gious.
"Well, I didn't plan to spend so much, but it is so beautiful. You're right, the dress calls for something special. I'll take it. You seem to know a lot about dressmaking. Will you help me select the rib- bons, please?"
"Of course. I'd love to!" Heidi replied.
"Thank you. And oh. I'm Claudette."
"I'm Heidi."
Heidi took the roll of fabric under her arm. "Let's go and look for the accessories. I think we'll find them on the next floor."
For the next hour they chatted away as if they had known each other for years. There were rib- bons galore to chose from and but- tons...! Finally, with the roll of fab- ric and their hands full of acces- sories, they made their way to the cashier's desk to have the fabric measured and cut.
"What a wonderful place this is!" Heidi exclaimed. "It's a dress-
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Transgender Tapestry #90 • 65
maker's heaven."
"Thanks for helping me, Heidi. I really appreciate it. But you've not even had time to buy anything for yourself."
"Think nothing of it, Claudette. I had a wonderful time. Besides, I didn't come to buy any- thing specific. For me it was more of a pilgrimage. The dress is going to be lovely. Your daughter is going to be SO happy. She will look beautiful!"
Suddenly Claudette stiffened, her eyes filling with tears.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Did I say something wrong? I... I just assumed it was for your daugh- ter."
"It's nothing," Claudette replied, struggling to keep her tears back.
They paid for the purchases and went out into the bright sun- light of the Champs Elysees. Heidi stopped and looked seriously at Claudette. "I'm really sorry I upset you in the store. I do apologize."
"It's not you, Heidi. I had such a wonderful time shopping with you! Er, do you have time for a coffee or something?
"I'd love to," Heidi replied.
They went into the Bistro next to Max's. Claudette selected a table that offered some privacy.
"Oui, Mesdemoiselles?" asked the gar^on.
"Two coffees, s'il vous plait."
Claudette didn't say anything until the waiter had brought the coffee. She fumbled nervously with the strap of her purse. Then she leaned close to Heidi. "Look, Heidi, I am so embarrassed. I don't know how to explain my behavior. It was so much fun shop- ping with you."
"No, it's my fault, Claudette. I was being very indiscreet. It's just that.... well, that the fabric was so beautiful. I guess I got carried away."
"I understand. But it's not for
my daughter." Claudette's voice dropping to a whisper, "It's for my son."
"Your son!?" exclaimed Heidi. This was not what she had expect- ed at all — some family intrigue, perhaps, but not this.
Claudette had been watching Heidi closely to see her response. And Heidi's surprise was obvious. "I knew you would be shocked!" said Claudette, emotion in her voice and tears in her eyes. "But it is not what you think."
Heidi instinctively put her hand on Claudette's to reassure her: "Mais non, Claudette. I'm not shocked. Really. But it is just so — so unexpected!"
The two women sat like that for a while, Heidi holding Claudette's hand. Gradually Heidi could feel Claudette starting to relax.
"My son, Michel, has been invited to his cousin's birthday party. It is a costume party. Michel insists he wants to go as a girl. I suggested everything — Superman, a cowboy, Spider-Man. But no, he wants to be a girl! He even select- ed this pattern!"
Heidi waited for a second. "Is that it? But that's not the end of the world, Claudette! At least he chose a beautiful dress. He's got good taste."
"Oh Heidi, if only it were that simple. We both wanted our first to be a son. My husband, Louis, was so proud the day Michel was born. He couldn't stop talking about all the things they were going to do together! But it didn't work out like that."
"What do you mean?" asked Heidi quietly, her own emotions building.
"Well, Michel doesn't seem to like boy things. He only plays with girls at school or at the park. He goes to bed with his teddy bear. His favorite toy is a doll! It makes Louis so angry. One day he took
the doll away and hid it. He told Michel he was now big and big boys don't play with dolls."
"And what happened?" asked Heidi, a familiar pain in her chest.
"It was awful. Michel cried so much. And I cried too. He kept on crying that he was not a boy. In the end, Louis had to give the doll back. Louis is so heartbroken that he has a sissy for a son."
Heidi sat in stunned silence — it was so long ago now.
"Heidi? You are shocked, yes?" Claudette asked anxiously.
"No, I was thinking ... But why should I be shocked?"
"Well, it's such a shame ..."
"It is NOT!" exclaimed Heidi with conviction. "You love Michel, don't you?"
"Michel? Of course, with all my heart!"
"Is he well-behaved?"
"Always. He is a pleasure."
"Other than when Louis took his doll, is he a happy child?"
"Oh yes, so long as we don't take his doll away," replied Claudette, rather surprised at the conviction in Heidi's voice.
"So there! You don't have a problem! You have a wonderful child — a treasure! Everything will work out fine."
Heidi glanced at her watch: "Look at the time! I'm sorry, I must go. It was really nice meeting you. I'm sure you and Michelle are going to enjoy making the dress!"
Claudette noticed the way Heidi had pronounced her son's name but she wasn't quite sure of what she had heard. Heidi had started to rise, so she got up too. She hugged Heidi and kissed her on both cheeks. "Thank you for giving me perspective, my dear. I feel so much better. You have helped me so much. I'm glad I met you. I hope things will work out."
"They will, Claudette, believe me! Here — let me give you some- thing." Heidi took a photograph
66 • Transgender Tapestry #90
from her purse and gave it to Claudette. "This is for when you start to doubt. Au revoir!"
Heidi waved, and then she was gone.
Claudette sat down slowly and looked at the photograph. It was of a young boy. He was sitting on a swing. In his one hand was a doll and he was clutching it tightly against his body. The boy had been crying. Claudette turned the pho-
tograph over. On the back some- one had written simply "Hans, 1952."
"I wonder why she gave me this?" Claudette stared at the pho- tograph for a long time. She thought about all that had hap- pened that afternoon. Suddenly the penny dropped.
"I don't believe it!" Claudette said out loud.
"You called me. Madem-
oiselle?" asked the garqon.
"Pardonnez moi. Monsieur, no. It's my friend — the lady who has just left — she has helped me more than you can ever imagine!"
T
Heidi Mueller is a pre-op transsexual who lives in Port Moody, British Columbia, Canada. She is a freelance graphics designer and has recently been doing web site design for busi- nesses.
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Transgender Tapestry #90 • 67
lA r t i c l_ e s
For those crossliving full-time, negotiat- ing the paper trail can be a nightmare. We run afoul of regulations which deny us the sex designation we prefer and wind up carrying identifying documents which embarrass and can endanger us. But sometimes we get lucky.... — Ed.
This article previously appeared in Crossport's Innerview newsletter.
HAVING THE WRONG IDENTITY on paper can be a challenge and an embarrassment. I had my first experience with this many years ago, when going through my divorce. I was living full-time as a woman. My lawyer asked me to have my signature certified by a Notary Public. The receptionist at the auto insurance agency to which I took the papers took one look at me and said I'd have to get my hus- band to come by personally. I explained that I was George, and he asked for my driver's license. After looking at it for some time, he looked at me and said, "Well, you've certainly changed your hair style!" Then he notarized my signa- ture.
Shortly after that I finished a course in Aesthetics and graduated with Georgia's name on all my doc- uments. I was required to take a State licensing exam, but gaining entrance to the testing facility, required a photo ID. Since I had no ID in the required name, I was in a
Bureaucratic Adventures
/
a
by Georgia W. Dahlberg
X37
quandary. I finally called the test- ing facility and explained to the lady who answered the phone that I was transgendered and that my beauty school documents were in my female name ... so, how to get into the exam when my driver's
The receptionist at the auto insurance agency to which I took the papers took one look at me and said I’d have to get my husband to come by personally. I explained that I was George, and he asked for my driver’s license. After looking at it for some time, he looked at me and said, “Well, you’ve certainly changed your hair style!” Then he notarized my signature . . .
license said George? She told me to stay on the line. After five minutes she came back and told me I should get a passport photo taken, paste it to a 3" x 5" card, and have it nota- rized with the name I wanted to appear on my Massachusetts State Aesthetician's license. I could pre- sent this to gain entrance to the state exam.
I still have that card! My State
license has an appalling computer photo attached, but it has allowed me to fly on the airlines and be treated as a professional at beauty supply houses, all in Georgia's name!
I finally got a court date to have my name legally changed to Georgia. Since I was living in Ohio but still had a Tennessee driver's license, I drove to Tennessee to have it changed to the new name. Unfortunately, Tennessee insisted on leaving the dreaded "M" sex designation on the license. [Tennessee and Ohio are the only two states which have laws forbidding the change of sex on birth certificates of transsexuals — Ed.]
I lived with this embarrassment of a license for eight months. I had to present it to take a drug test, cash checks, get a security clear- ance and get employment. It always gave me a bad feeling when it was Xeroxed and placed in my file. I never knew when someone would spot it and call with embar- rassing questions. At the drug test, I just shrugged my shoulders and said, "You know how people are in Tennessee."
I finally got around to getting an Ohio driver's license. I'd had no problems changing my profession- al engineer's licenses in Tennessee and Ohio, but dreaded this last change. Armed with a letter from
68 • Transgender Tapestry #90
my psychologist, I sallied forth and was promptly told I had to go to another office.
After more driving, I found myself in front of a female state trooper. She went through all the information except the sex designa- tion, which she seemed to ignore. I didn't bring it up either.
I took the test and sat to await the results. A woman called my name and proceeded to tell me she couldn't change the M to an F. 1 showed her the letter I had brought. She went off with it and after five minutes came back with the news that she still couldn't change it. Rather dejectedly, I took my papers to the next office and waited my turn for the new license.
After more questions, I was
called to sign my name on the new card. To my surprise and relief, I saw "F" on the new license.
I had a big smile when they took my picture. I wrote a check and got out of there in record time!
Having that "F" has made my life easier. The next time I get a license, I won't have to worry. The next job I take, I won't have to worry. Next check? No worry.
Did I do anything illegal or dis- honest? Not that I'm aware of. I try to be honest and up front with peo- ple, but feel no need to pull my skirt up for any bureaucrat, mer- chant or prospective employer. I have no desire to discuss the state of my genitals with any of these people, and I resent it when they pry into my personal life.
I enjoy life as a female and plan to continue having an honest and productive life. But now I don't have to worry that I'll be embar- rassed by a piece of paper in my wallet.
▼
Georgia W. Dahlberg is serving her second term on the board of directors at Crossport and on the Vestry in her church. She does public speaking for Stonewall Cincinnati at various uni- versities and with the police training effort on diversity. She is a practicing "out" professional consulting engi- neer and has written a regular month- ly column for the local GLBT News. She can be reached at <GEOM- RR94@aol.com>.
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Transgender Tapestry #90 • 69
Notices & Announcements
To add your event to our website, please log on to www.ifge.org, then click on GenderEvents to add your info.
JUNE 7-11, 2000 BE ALL 2000
Held in Cincinatti, Ohio, USA. E-mail crossport@tgforum.com for more info.
JUNE 23-25, 2000 BREAKING THE SILENCE AWARDS BANQUET
Project 10 East Third Annual Breaking the Silence Awards Banquet will be held June 23, 2000 at the Dante Aligheri Cultural Center, in Kendall Square, Cambridge Massachusetts. Tickets are $5 for Youth/ Students /Low Income, $30 for Project 10 East Members, $40 for Non-Members. Dinner and entertain- ment will be provided. 617-864-4528, http:/ / Quniverse.com/ plOe
JUNE 23-25, 2000 KINDRED SPIRITS SOLSTICE CIRCLE
An open gathering devoted to heart sharing and celebration at the height of solar energy. Excellent opportunity for newcomers. This will be the first gather- ing ever hosted at Kindred Spirits' new guesthouse in the mountains near Asheville, NC.
Contact:
Holly Boswell & Kindred Spirits 395 Lakey Gap Acres,
Black Mountain, NC 28711 Phone: (828)669-3889 E-mail: hollyfairy@juno.com web site: www.TranSpirits.org
AUGUST 17-20, 2000 8th ANNUAL KINDRED SPIRITS CIRCLE
Celebrating the growing traditions and visions of Kindred Spirits. Newcomers and veterans alike are invited to share in a rich, life-altering experience at the his- toric Sunnybank Inn, hiking Max Patch Bald, dipping in mountain streams, hot tubs, and fine dining. Contact: Holly
Boswell & Kindred Spirits 395 Lakey Gap Acres, Black Mountain, NC 28711 (828)669-3889 / hollyfairy@juno.com web site: www.TranSpirits.org
SEPT. 26-OCT. 1,2000 SOUTHERN COMFORT
Sheraton Buckhead Hotel, Atlanta and The Sheraton Four Points, 3387 Lenox Rd. NE, Atlanta, GA 30326. For reservations call the Atlanta Sheraton Buckhead directly at either (800) 241-8260 or (404) 261-9250 between the hours of 9am to 6pm Monday through Friday. To contact Southern Comfort Conference: P.O. Box 77591, Atlanta, GA 30357-1591. (404) 633-6470. info@sccatl.org / URL: http:/ / www.sccatl.org/
FOURTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON CROSSDRESSING SEX & GENDER
POSTPONED UNTIL OCTOBER 5-8
Held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, the event will take place at the Warwick Hotel in downtown Philadelphia. Visit our website to view and download the Call For Papers, http: / / www.ren.org/cfp.html
Angela Gardner, Exec Dir: 610.975.9119 email: angela@ren.org The Renaissance Transgender Association, Inc.
WWW: http:/ /www.ren.org Publishers of Transgender Community News
RESEARCH SUBJECTS WANTED
The following researchers have sent requests for subjects. Please note, IFGE and the editors of Transgender Tapestry do not endorse any of these projects.
Dear Members of the Transgender Community: We are graduate stu- dents in the Human Sexuality Program at NYU. We attended your 5th Annual NYC Transgender & Transsexual Health Empower- ment Conference on November 6, 1 999. We thoroughly enjoyed the conference and were particularly intrigued by the issues raised in the intimacy workshop. We conducted research and found that there has been no study on issues of intimacy in the transgender community.
We also noted a gap between the knowledge of some members of the professional community (doctors, counselors, etc.) working with transgender people and that of the people themselves. We ascertained that research done in this area could serve as a bridge between transgen- der people and the medical and psy- chological professionals who work with them. We submitted a proposal (see enclosed), which was accepted, for a presentation at this year's Eastern Regional Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality Conference on intimacy in the trans- gender community.
We would like to ask for your assistance in conducting our research. We would like to conduct it with a questionnaire to members of the community. Confidentiality will be guaranteed to all participants. Please forward this email to anyone who might be interested in this study. We appreciate any assistance you can offer us. We are also doing an online-survey on our website at http://www.geocities.com/transstudy
Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Remi Newman and Huso Yi Professional Program in Human Sexuality, Department of Health Studies, New York University E-mail: transstudy@yahoo.com
70 • Transgender Tapestry #90
PROFESSIONAL LISTINGS
We at Transgender Tapestry would like to take this opportunity to thank the professional individuals and organizations who support the production of this magazine with a paid listing. Please remember to look here first for services.
SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA
RISKIN-BANKER PSYCHOTHERAPY CNTR.
1913 El 7th St., Ste. 107 Santa Anna, CA 92705 tele: 714-953-9882,
FAX: 714-953-2094, e-mail:RBCenter @aol.com Board Certified Sex Therapists with extensive experience counseling Transgender indi- viduals. Interns are available on a sliding fee scale. #90
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GENDER GROUP
116 N. Robertson Blvd.
Suite 702,
Los Angeles. CA 90048 Tele: 310-659-8640 Psychotherapy with knowl- edgeable and caring profes- sionals.
Contact T. Adam Cotsen MD #91
CENTER FOR GENDER SANITY
P.O. Box 451427,
Westchester, CA 90045.
Tele: 310-670-2222.
Janis Walworth, Michele Kammerer.
Email: merkins@cris.com. Web:www.cris.com/ -merkins Consulting services for employers with transsexual workers, sensitivity training. Job issues? Call us (no charge). Conferences for transgen- dered, intersex, and non-T women.
#90
NORTHERN
CALIFORNIA
GIANNA E. ISRAEL
PO Box 424447,
San Francisco, CA 94142 Tele: 415-558-8058, Gianna@counselsuite.com. Individual counseling, Nationwide telephone consul- tation, gender specialized evaluations custody and rela- tionship issues. Author of Transgender Care (Temple University, 1997) HBIGDA Member #91
DOUGLAS K. OUSTERHOUT, MD
45 Castro St., Suite 150,
San Francisco, CA 94114.
Phone (415) 626-2888 e-mail: ousterht@cris.com. Facial and body feminization surgery.
#90
COLORADO
STANLEY H. BIBER,
MD., P.C.:
406 First National Bank Bldg., Trinidad CO 81082.
Tele: 719-846-3301.
FAX: 719-846-6097.
Surgeon.
#92
CONNECTICUT
GENDER IDENTITY CLINIC OF NEW ENGLAND:
68 Adelaide Road, Manchester CT 06040. Clinton R. Jones, Director, Tele: (860) 646-8651. Web site:
www.intelleng.com/ gicne. html.
Differential diagnosis, hor-
The professional ads in this magazine have been placed by individuals and organizations who support the production of this magazine with a paid listing. A one year paid listing is $125, which includes four issues of Transgender Tapestry.. To place a Professional Listing Call: 781-899-2212 or E-mail us at: info@ifge.org and please include PRO-AD in the subject line of the email message.
You can also write to us:
ATTN: PRO-AD, IFGE, PO Box 540229,
Waltham, MA 02454-0229
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 71
monal therapy and general counseling for transgendered persons.
#90
FLORIDA
A CLINICAL APPROACH COUNSELING CENTER
c/o Marcia L. Schultz, Ph.D., 1801 University Drive,
Coral Springs FL 69541.
Tele: (954)345-2292.
FAX (954)345-8086.
Dr. Schultz has worked with the Transgender Community for six years attending support groups and having attended Southern Comfort three times. Our office is Transgender friendly. Therapy for TGs and families.
#92
LIBBY A. TANNER, Ph.D., L.C.S.W., L.M.F.T.
1800 Sunset Harbour Drive, #1012
Miami, FL 33139 Tele: (305) 538-4849/
(305) 534-0686
E-mail: Libby_Arkin@aol.com AASECT/HBIGDA certified sex therapist, 20 years experi- ence with T's and their fami- lies. General psychotherapy and sexologist.
#95
ILLINOIS
RANDI ETTNER, PH.D.
1214 Lake St.,
Evanston IL 60201.
Tele: (847)328-3433.
FAX: 847-328-5890. http:// members.aol.com/ret- tner. Psychotherapist /psy- chologist. President, New Health Foundation.
#92
MARYLAND
KATE THOMAS, PH.D., RN., CS., F.A.A.C.S.:
The Human Ecology Center, 4419 Falls Road,
Baltimore MD 21211.
Tele: (410) 625-1095.
FAX: (410)366-0651.
Clinical sexologist, specializ- ing in sexuality and gender. #93
RUSTY LYNN, LCSW:
4835 Del Ray Ave.,
Bethesda MD 20814.
Tele: (301)652-6448.
Pastoral counselor with over 10 years experience counseling transgendered persons.
#92
MASSACHUSETTS
ELKE O'DONNELL, PH.D., MTS:
43 Roberts Road,
Cambridge MA 02138.
Tele: (617) 441-9300.
Email: EUOD@aol.com. Psychotherapy & pastoral counseling for the transgen- dered and their loved ones.
Referrals for HRT and surgery. #90
CHRISTINE C. BECKER, LICSW
341 Marrett Rd. (Rt. 2A) Lexington, MA 02421 Tel: 781-862-6170 Gender Specialist, Individual, couple, family and group counseling for the transgender community. Support for part- ners and TG Parenting, med- ical care and surgical referrals, workplace transitions. Support groups for M2F and F2M.
#91
DIANE ELLABORN, LICSW, NASW DIPLOMAT IN CLINICAL SOCIAL WORK
Framingham MA Tele: (508) 788-5406 Individual, couple and group psychotherapy. Evaluations for hormones and surgery and referrals to medical services for transsexuals. Insurance accepted. Supervision and consultation for professionals. #90
DENNIS PEARNE, EDD
9 Alexander Av.,
Belmont Ctr., MA 02478.
Tele: (617)484-0013.
Licensed Psychologist special- izing in Transgender issues. Consultations, psychotherapy and counseling.
#93
72 • Transgender Tapestry #90
MICHIGAN
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN HEALTH SYS- TEM COMPREHENSIVE GENDER
SERVICES PROGRAM:
The UMHS-CGSP is dedicated to meeting the medical and mental health care needs of individuals and their families for whom gender and sexual identity and expression are primary issues. Full range of services including primary medical and mental health care, speech and surgery. Sandra Cole, Director. Contact: Alfreda R. Rooks Office: 734-528-0895 Email: umcgsp@umich.edu #90
MINNESOTA
KAROL L. JENSEN, M.P.H., PH.D.
2817 Lyndale Ave.,
Minneapolis MN 55408 Tel: (612) 872-6399.
Email: KLJensen02@aol.com. Gender identity issues, TS,
TG, individual psychotherapy and couple work.
#94
TRANSGENDER SERVICES, PROGRAM IN HUMAN SEXUALITY, DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY PRACTICE & COMMUNITY HEALTH, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESO-
TA MEDICAL SCHOOL
Walter Bockting, Coordinator, 1300 South Second Street,
Suite 180, Minneapolis, MN 55454.
Tele: (612) 625-1500.
FAX: (612) 626-8311.
Email:
bock001@gold.tc.umn.edu. Website:www.med. umn.edu/ f p/ phs/ phstgsrv.htm. Comprehensive services for transgender, transsexual and intersex persons and families. #92
MISSOURI
HELEN R. FRIEDMAN, PH.D.:
7750 Clayton Road, Suite 210, St. Louis, MO 63117. (314) 781- 4500. Clinical psychologist offering compassionate, sup- portive individual, couple, and family therapy for the transgendered community and their families. Specialties: gen- der identity, addictions, depression, anxiety, stress, relationships, sexuality.
#93
NEVADA
NANCY LEE, PH.D.
Caring Counseling,
2061 Market Street, Reno NV 89502. Tele: (702) 322-7771. FAX: (702)322-7501.
Providing warm, accepting, validating and confidential
psychotherapy for all mem- bers of the transgender com- munity and their families #92
NEW JERSEY
DR. AMY L. ALTENHAUS, PHD.
80 East Main Street Freehold, NJ 07728 (732) 780-6644 FAX: 732-845-1184 Psychologist doing psy- chotherapy and custody eval- uation.
#95
DR. A.S. NUBEL PHYCHOTHERAPIST:
683 Donald Dr.
N Bridgewater, NJ 08807 Tel: (908) 722-9884,
Fax: (908) 722-0666 Specialized Treatment of Gender Identity Disorders, (TV/TS,) Individuals, Marriage and Family, Groups, Email: Nubel@Eclipse.net www.Eclipse.net/ -Nubel #91
NEW YORK
ARLENE ISTAR LEV R.C.S.W., C.A.S.A.C. CHOICES COUNSELING ASSOCIATES
321 Washington,
Albany, New York 12206 Tele: 518-463-9152 email: istarlev@aol.com
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 73
TEXAS
Individual and family therapy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other sexual minority issues. Sexual and gender identity, addictions, domestic violence, sexual abuse, parenting, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, body image disturbance, illness and sexuality.
#90
KATHERINE / KIT RACHLIN, PH.D.
153 Waverly Place, Suite 700 New York, NY. 10014 (212) 206-3636 KRachlin@aol.com Licensed Clinical Psychologist with solid TS/TG experience (14+ years) and serious clinical training. Warm, open minded, supportive and well-informed. Provides psychotherapy and resource referrals to individu- als, SOFFAS, couples, and non-traditional relationships. Alternate lifestyles welcome. Also provides professional supervision for psychothera- pists.
#93
DAVID SEGAL,
ATTORNEY AT LAW
30 Vesey St.,
New York, New York, 10007, Tel: 212-406-9200.
FAX: 212-571-0938.
Gender Friendly. No fee for consultation. Experienced in all areas of Law. #90
OHIO
TRANSSEXUAL, CROSSDRESSER, TRANSGENDERIST CON- CERNS
Meral G. Crane, MA, LPCC
Clinical
P.O. Box 82008,
Columbus, Ohio, 43202 Tel: 614-451-0111, email: crane.2@osu.edu Director and Coordinator, Family Therapist; Sex Therapist, Licensed Counselor. Over 25 years experience.
#93
RHODE ISLAND
DAVID MEDEIROS, LICSW
Craik Building, Suite 307,
2845 Post Rd.,
Warwick, RI 02886.
Tele: (401)739-4604.
Gender Specialist, counseling. Psychotherapy and Education. Counseling, psychotherapy and education.
#90
STEVEN M. KANE, PH.D.
451 Broadway Providence, RI 02909.
Tel: 401-454-5700. Psychotherapy and counseling for individuals, couples, fami- lies, and groups. Supervisory, educational, and public speak- ing services also available. Member AAPC #90
PHYLLIS RANDOLPH FRYE, ATTORNEY
5707 Firenza Street,
Houston, Texas 77035-5515,
AC Tele: 713-723-8368.
Email: prfrye@aol.com http: / / members.aol.com/ prfrye Transgendered, "OUT" lawyer, licensed in Texas, since 1981. Gender ID change and sex correction without genital reconstruction. Also, wills, criminal defense and divorce practitioner. (Not certified by Texas Board of Legal Specialization.)
#90
FELESHIA PORTER, MS,
LPC
Park Cities Counseling Center 3520 Cedar Springs Road Dallas, TX 75219 Tele: (214) 526-3374 x4 FAX: (214) 526-3375 FeleshiaPorter@yahoo.com Self esteem specialist working in the areas of gender, sexuali- ty, and relationships. Working with people in transition since 1997, she provides a loving, safe environment that encour- ages people to embrace their "true selves." She is a member and followd the guidelines of HGIGDA. Individual and group sessions available.
#93
74 • Transgender Tapestry #90
ALICE WEBB, PH.D. LMSW-ACP
18333 Egret Bay Blvd., Suite 560, Houston TX 77058 (NASA, Clear Lake area)
Tele: (281) 333-2278.
FAX: (281) 333-2293.
Email: ALESWEBB@aol.com. Pres. Elect-HBIGDA, 1997- 1999. Clinical sexology, gender program, certified sex thera- pist, general psychotherapy. #90
VIRGINIA
RUSTY LYNN, LCSW, PASTORAL COUNSELOR
Tele: 703-903-9696, ext. 269 Over ten years experience helping transgender persons, their spouses, family mem- bers, and friends. Referrals to medical professionals when appropriate. Offices in Washington DC near Metro Center, and in N. Arlington, VA #90
MARTHA HARRIS,
LCSW, CHT. TFT:
Banyan Counseling Center, 4201 John Marr Drive, Ste. 222.
Annandale, VA 22003.
Tele: 703-914-4627.
Affirming, sensitive, confiden- tial counseling for the TG community, their significant others and families. Certified Hypnotherapist & Thought Field Therapist.
#92
MICHAEL G. TANCYUS L.C.S.W.
57 South Main Street, Suite 615 Harrisonburg, VA 22801 Tele: 540-574-6063 Email: rolltide@cfw.com Web: www.busdir.com/tan- cyusmic/index.html Individuals, couples and fami- lies. Providing affirming care for transgendered individuals and their loved ones from a family preservationist orienta- tion. Over 20 years of experi- ence with adults and adoles- cents.
#90
WASHINGTON
THE INGERSOLL GENDER CENTER:
1812 East Madison,
Seattle WA 98122.
(206)329-6651.
Counseling & referrals.
#92
JUDE PATTON,
CMHC, CMFT, PA-C:
1812 East Madison, Suite 102, Seattle, WA 98122,
Phone/FAX: (425) 787-5094. Email:
JUDEPATTON@aol.com Compassionate, supportive counseling for all trans-per- sons and their SOFFAs, by transman who is a physician assistant, therapist and AASECT certified sex educa- tor and sex therapist. Reasonable fees.
#90
WISCONSIN
MILWAUKEE
TRANSGENDER PROGRAM
c/o Gretchen Finke, MSSW or Roger Northway, MS, Pathways Counseling Center, 2645 N. Mayfair Road, Suite 230, Milwaukee, WI, 53226. 414-774-4111. Full Service Gender Program.
#92
For additional resources please be sure to browse the Synchronicity Bookstore Catalogue on page 84, or online at http://www.ifge.org
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 75
INTERNATIONAL and NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
For changes in your listing, or to add your group please e-mail us at: info@ifge.org and please include GROUP-LISTING in the subject line of the message.
FTM
AMERICAN BOYZ: mid-Atlantic region. For gender variant people of the f2m con- tinuum, plus all SOFFAs. Contact Gary at American Boyz, 212A S. Bridge Street,
Suite 131, Elkton, MD, 21921 or transman@netgsi.com
FEMALE-TO-MALE INTERNATIONAL:
1360 Mission St., Ste. 200,
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 553-5987 / Web: www.ftm-intl.org
Email:TSTGMen@aol.com
FTM NETWORK [also PRESS FOR CHANGE]: BM Network, London, WC1N 3 XX. Phone: +44-161-423-1915, Wed. 8pm- 10.30 pm Wed. GMT Emaiks. t.whittle@mmu.ac.uk.
Web: www.pfc.org.uk/press for change. Support, political lobbying and education group.
ALL
GENDER EDUCATION & ADVOCACY.
Web: www.gender.org.
GENDERPAC:
272 West Uth Street, Suite 4R,
New York, NY 10014. 212-645-1753
Web: www.gpac.org
E-mail: membership@gpac.org.
GENDER IDENTITY RESEARCH AND EDUCATION SOCIETY (GIRES):
Web: www.gires.org.uk.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TRANSGENDER LAW AND EMPLOY- MENT POLICY(ICTLEP):
PO Drawer 1010, Cooperstown NY 13326. ATTN: Sharon Stuart, Corresponding Secretary. (607) 547-4118.
Email: ictlephdq@aol.com.
AOL Keyword: ICTLEP.
Web: www.abmall.com/ictlep.
Information source on TG legal and policy issues.
INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR GENDER EDUCATION: IFGE,
Box 540229, Waltham MA 02454.
(781) 899-2212 / FAX (781) 899-5703. E-mail: info@ifge.org.
Web: www.ifge.org
Education, outreach, peer counseling.
DEAF/HARD OF HEARING/SI-JESS:
(202) 547-9524 (tdd only).
E-mail: llmtanzar@gallua.gallaudet.edu.
NATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN TASK FORCE: 2320 17th Street NW,
Washington DC 20009-2702.
(202) 332-6483 extension 3301,
FAX (202) 332-0207, TTY (202)332-6219.
It is impossible to list all the gay and les- bian support groups. Write NGLTF for a referral to someone near you.
OUTREACH INSTITUTE OF GENDER STUDIES: OIGS, 126 Western Ave,
Suite 246, Augusta ME 04330.
Ariadne Kane, MEd, Director
(207) 621-0858. Programs for professionals.
RENAISSANCE EDUCATION ASSOCIA- TION: 987 Old Eagle School Rd„ #719, Wayne PA 19087. (610) 975-9119 (24 hrs). Email: angela@ren.org.
Educational outreach and support group.
CD/TV
SOCIETY FOR THE SECOND SELF (TRI-
ESS): PO Box 194, Tulare CA 93275.
Email: TRISINFO@AOL.COM Educational outreach and support for het- erosexual crossdressers. Write for referrals to local chapters.
TRANSSEXUALS IN PRISON:
c/o Ronnie Lynne Soubrette,
104 Quineveree Ct., Castle Rock WA 09611. Support group.
T.O.P.S (Transgender Officers Protect & Serve): Tony Barreto-Neto Exec. Dir,
3210 Tom Mathews Rd , Lakeland FL 33809. Tel: 1-888-983-3222 or (813) 752-9228.
E-mail: TOPS@starplace.com Web: www.homestead.com/topsspot Social, employment, legal support.
INTERSEX SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA: P.O. Box 31791, San Francisco, CA 94131 (415) 575-3885 E-mail: cchase@isna.org Web: www.isna.org
P-FLAG (PARENTS, FAMILIES AND FRIENDS OF LESBIANS AND GAYS):
1101 Uth Street NW, ste 1030, Washington, DC 20005 (202) 638-4200 E-mail: info@pflag.org. Web: www.pflag.org.
GRACE & LACE LETTER INTERNA- TIONAL: 8880 Bellaire B2 #104,
Houston TX 77036. E-mail: jeftris@aol.com. Web: www.geocities.com/southbeach/ sands/ 7777/. Christian publication for CD, TG, TS, SO.
ALABAMA
TRI-S— SIGMA RHO GAMMA: SERGA,
PO Box 16174, Huntsville AL 35802. Michelle Steadman, (205) 880-9660.
Support group.
TRI-S— SIGMA RHO GAMMA SOUTH: SERGA, PO Box 66286, Mobile AL 36660. Lisa Jackson. Support group.
ALASKA
CD/TS/SO/MTF/FTM— ALASKAN T-PEOPLE: PO Box 670349, Chugiak AK 99567-0349. Strictly social for the whole family.
TRI-S— ALPHA KAPPA: PO Box 5392, Ft. Richardson, AK 99505-0392. Group
ARIZONA
CD/TS— A ROSE: PO Box 8108, Glendale,
AZ 85285-8363. (602) 488-0959
E-mail: sss@tri-ess.org
Web: http://www.inficad.com/~arose
E-mail: denise@inficad.com
Support group.
TRI-ESS— ALPHA ZETA CHAPTER—
Cactus Flower: PO Box 83927,
Phoenix AZ 85071 . (480) 837-1067.
Email: Aquahills@AOL.com.
Support group.
TG — FTM — DezertBoyz: meets in Tucson at 7:00 pm on the first Tuesday of each month at Wingspan Center. SO Contact Debra at (520) 903-1421 or debra@hwr.arizina.edu.
Web: members.aol.com/DezertBoyz/
CD/TS/TG— EVOLVER:
416 E. 22nd St., Tucson AZ 85713.
(520) 884-0541. Support group.
Web: home.earthlink.net/~evolvere/ E-mail-SAndra@aol.com
TRI-ESS— TAU UPSILON:
8802 E. Broadway Blvd #145,
Tucson AZ 85710. Phone: (520)296-3472.
CD/TS/TG/FTM— TRANSGENDERED HARMONY, PO Box 8423, Mesa, AZ 85214, (480)654-6775,
E-mail: leslielesley@worldnet.att.net. Educational & social support group
ARKANSAS
TS-Support Line: Contact Frances at (316) 795-4876. Email: Fransie@oswego.net
FTM — Arkansas Boyz: AR Contact: Garin, (501) 443-3184; Email: Kwiggin@aol.com
CALIFORNIA
FTM— GENDERQUEER BOYZZ: Contact Jacob Hale /E-mail: Zeroboyjh@aol.com
ALL— THE TRANSGENDER MENACE OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: A direct action group dedicated to using any means necessary to make the world, especially our Southern California comer of it, a safe place for all transfolk and genderqueers. Shirley, (323) 573-6428 Shirley@earthlink.net
ALL— (ORANGE COUNTY). PEOPLE EXPRESSING ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLES (PEAL). 2nd and last Fridays of the month, 7:30 to 10:00 pm.
Help Line: Wednesday nights 7:30 to 9:00, (714) 534-0862.
Email: CenterOCTG@aol.com.
TRI-ESS— ALPHA: PO Box 411352, c/o Kathy Helms, Eagle Rock Station,
Los Angeles C A 90041 .
Tel: (818)352-9448. Support.
CD/TS— CLUB CHERCHEZ LA FEMME:
PO Box 10873, Santa Ana CA 92711-0873. Send SASE for details. Private membership club.
TG— VENTURA GENDER OUTREACH:
3503 Arundell Circle, Ventura CA 93003. (805) 339-6340. Contact person: Stacie.
Open peer facilitated drop in group for per- sons who have a conflict with or questions about their gender. Tues night 7-9pm.
CD/SO— CROSSDRESSER HETEROSEX- UAL INTERSOCIAL CLUB: CHIC, PO
Box 8487, Long Beach CA 90808.
(818) 243-2442. Support group.
Web: http://www.transgender.or/tg/chic
IS— AIS SUPPORT GROUP: c/o Sherri Groveman, 4203 Genessee Ave., #103-436, San Diego CA 92117-4950.
Email: aissg@aol.com.
CD/TS/SO— NEUTRAL CORNER: PO Box
19008, San Diego CA 92159. (619)685-3696. Web: www.geocihes.com/WestHollywood/ Village/4718/
E-ma il : neu tral-comer@geoci hes.com
FTM— UNDER CONSTRUCTION: P.O
Box 922342, Sylmar, CA 91392-2342, 818- 837-1904. contact Jeff Shevlowitz E-MAIL: LITTLESHEVY@JUNO.COM.
TRI-S— TRI-CHI— TRI ESS: PO Box 194, Tulare CA 93275. Phone: (209)688-9246. Support group.
TS— EMERGENCE- SUPPORT FOR CHRISTIAN TRANSSEXUALS: Assembly of God Church, Fresno, CA. A safe place to discuss Christian beliefs, gender issues, transition and anything. Call Terri M. 209- 637-9986 E-mail: terrim@evangeltab.org
CD/TS— ANDROGYNY: Friendship and understanding in a safe and supportive environment. A place to explore being Transsexual, Crossdresser, or Transgenderist. A place to meet others like yourself. Meetings: Tuesday nights from 8:00pm unhl 9:30pm, Santa Monica, CA. (323)962-9175. Support group.
CD/TS/IS— RAINBOW SUPPORT GROUP: Gay, Straight, Intersex. Meets Tuesday evenings 7-9pm. Write Rainbow Community Church, Visalia Friends Meeting House, 17208 Ave. 296, Visalia,
CA, 93291. (209) 627-2727
CD/TS/SO— POWDER PUFFS OF ORANGE COUNTY (PPOC): P.O. Box 1088, Yorba Linda, CA 92885.
(714) 281-0297. E-mail: ppoc@aol.com.
Web: www.ren.org/ppoc.html
FTM/SO — FTM International Bimonthly: FTM TS/TG— TRANSMALE TASK- FORCE: 1259 El Camino Real, #151, Menlo Park CA 94025. (415) 780-9349. FTM
ALL— ACCESS POINT
Provides Nahonwide counseling and coaching for Gender Gifted people and loved ones, via toll-free phone line consul- tations no charge. Also provides local (Central California) support groups and "salon parties" for clients and guests. Jim, MFCT, and Caroline Hall, MBA. 24hr info 1-800-549-1749 ext. 3, direct: (805) 534-1101, fax: (805) 534-1718,
Email: Accesspnt@aol.com,
Web: www.AccessPt.com
76 • Transgender Tapestry #90
ALL — GIGI's-Gender Issues, Gender Information and Support. Hosted by Miss Major, 5 days a week Mon-Fri 4pm-6pm. Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center, 187 Golden Gate Ave at Leavenworth, San Francisco 94102. (415) 431-7476
CD/TS/SO— SAN FRANCISCO GENDER INFORMATION: SFGI, 3637 Grand Ave., Suite C, Oakland, CA 94610-2029.
Maintains database of TG resources for SF Bay area.
ALL — LAVENDER LINE: Pacific Center (510)841-6224. An information/ resource phone line for the GLBT community cover- ing the East Bay, San Francisco area.
MTF-FTM-TRANGENDERS IN TRANSI- TION: A facilitated group for transfolk at all stages of transition. Thurs. 7:30-9:00pm Cost $30-$5 per session sliding scale.
Call first (415) 436-9000
CD/TS/SO— TGSF (formerly ETVC): PO Box 426486 San Francisco CA 94142-6486. (415) 564-3246. Web: www.tgsf.org.
Support.
SO— SIGNIFICANT OTHERS SUPPORT: SOS, attn: Ginny Knuth, 2478 28th Ave.,
San Francisco CA 94116-2305.
(415)644-1499. E-mail: ginny@sirius.com. Support group.
CD/TS/SO— DIABLO VALLEY GIRLS: DVG, PO Box 272885,
Concord, C A 94527-2885. (925) 937-8432 Web: www.transgender.org/dvg.
E-mail: dug@transgender.org. Group
CD/TS/SO— RAINBOW COMMUNITY CENTER OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY:
2118 Willow Pass Road, Suite 500,
Concord, CA 94520 (925) 692-0090 E-mail: mwalker@rainbowcc.org.
Support group.
FTM TS— FTM INTERNATIONAL: 5337 College Avenue, #142, Oakland CA 94618. Support group for FTM TSs.
CD/TS/SO— PACIFIC CENTER FOR HUMAN GROWTH: 2712 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley CA 94705. (510)548-8283. 1 & R (510)841-6224. E-mail: paccent@pacbell.net. Web: www.pacificenter.org. Support group.
CD/TS— SWAN'S INNER SORORITY: PO
Box 1423, San Jose CA 95109. (408)297-6900. E-mail: wendi@sisgirls.com Web: www.sis- girls.com Support group.
CD/TS/SO— SACRAMENTO GENDER ASSOCIATION: PO Box 215456, Sacramento, CA 95821.
(916)482-7742. Support group.
Email: sacgender@hotmail.com Web: www.geocities.com/westholly- wood/village/4409/
TS— LAMBDA COMMUNITY CENTER:
c/o Marsha, 919 — 20th St., Sacramento, CA 95814. Phone (916)729-8935 or (916)442- 0185. Support and educational outreach.
TRI-S— SIGMA SIGMA BETA— TRI-ESS SIERRA SILVER BELLES: SSB, PO Box
19933, S. Lake Tahoe CA 96151. Group
QSPIRIT— 3739 Balboa St #211, San Francisco, CA 94121. (415) 281-9377. E-mail: qspiritl@aol.com. Web: www.qspirit.org. Personal & spiritual development.
TRANSUPPORT GROUP CENTER-
308 Turk St #7, San Francisco CA 94102 (415) 224-1189. A safe place to be yourself. Emotional counseling, referrals, and job placement.
ALL/TV/TS/MTF/FTM/SO— RAINBOW GENDER ASSOCIATION PO Box 700730, San Jose, CA 95170-0730
CD— BORN FREE PO Box 52829, Riverside, CA 92517-2611. Social Support
COLORADO
TG— SOUTHERN COLORADO INTRA- REGIONAL TRANSGENDERED SOCI- ETY (S.C.I.R.T.S.) Colorado Springs, Colorado, (719) 591-5860 Lisa Jo K. Laptad Web: www.geocities.com/westholly- wood / heights / 4484 Support Group meetings every Tuesday 7pm plus every 3rd Friday. Anyone who will keep confidentiality is welcome.
CD/TS— GENDER IDENTITY CENTER OF COLORADO, INC.: GIC, 1455 Ammons Street, Suite 100, Lakewood CO 80215. (303)202-6466. Educational outreach E-mail: GlCof Colo@aol.com Web: www.abmall.com/gic
CONNECTICUT
CD/TS/SO— GBSING, GBS, PO Box 162, Haddam, CT 06438-0162.
E-mail: GBSING@aol.com Support Group.
TG-Connecticut outreach society: PO Box
163, Farmington, CT 06034-0163, (860)604- 6343, e-mail: ctoutreach@aol.com, Web: http://members.aol.com/ctoutreach Support Group
TS/SO— XX (TWENTY) CLUB: PO Box 387, Hartford CT 06141-0387. Support group.
CD— CONNECTICUTVIEW: c/o Denise Mason, P.O. Box 2281, Devon, CT 06460. Email: Mason D@aol.com. Newsletter and directory.
T/G— TRANSACT: Kaylen (203) 661-2448 Greenwich, Conn. Support Group
DELAWARE
CD/TS/SO— RENAISSANCE— DELAWARE CHAPTER: PO Box 5656, Wilmington DE 19808. (302)376-1990. www.ren.org/Renaissance_D.html Support group.
FTM — Delaware Boyz: Steve, (302) 856- 7179
FLORIDA
TG— MU BETA GAMMA: c/o Barbara Ann Coombs, POB 4621, Miami Lake Station, Miami FL 33014. Tri-Ess group meets last Saturday of every month. Call Linda (305) 653-8088 or Barbara (305) 595- 9348. Support Group.
TG— NORTH FLORIDA SISTERS: P.O
Box 5765, E. Jacksonville, FL 32447. E-mail: cdarica@aol.com Meets 2nd Saturday of each month. Support.
TG— TRANSGENDER SUPPORT GROUP: P.O. Box 4940 Greater Fort Lauderdale, FL 33339 Every Wed. at 7:30pm at the Gay, Lesbian Comm. Center. Call (954) 777-2328
CD/TS— ALSO 4 YOUTH: Sarasota, FL. (941)426-8687 e-mail: krjeffrey@aol.com
ALL— FGS- FREEDOM OF GENDER:
Sarasota FL. Meets 3rd Friday of the month at 7:00 pm. Contact Kristin at (941) 426-8681 for info.
TG— EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT GROUP: for the Transgender Community. Meets at the Gay and Lesbian Comm, Center of Greater Lauderdale, Florida (954) 563-9500. Ask for Michael or Heidi
CD/TS/TG— PANTRA: PO Box 3426, Tallahassee, FL 32315-3426.
ALL— EMERALD COAST CHAPTER OF PANTRA We are a non-sexual support group for the transgendered people in Pensacola and the surrounding areas. Meetings are on the 2nd Saturday of the month. For more information contact: Emerald Coast Chapter of Pantra S-129 8084 N. Davis Hwy. E3 Pensacola, FL 32514 Web: www.geocities.com/westholly- wood/park/7800
TRI-ESS— TAU LAMBDA: PO Box 3426, Tallahassee FL 32315-3426.
TRI-ESS— PHI EPSILON MU/CENTRAL FLORIDA SISTERS: PO Box 3261, Winter Park FL 32790-3261. (407) 263-8978 Email: z26y25@aol.com. Web: http:/ /www.hori- zon-usa.com/misc/fem.htm. Support group meets monthly on Saturdays.
FTM — Florida Boyz: David, Email: FTMOrlando@aol.com (Orlando, FL)
TS— EVOLVE: 714 E. Colonial Dr.,
Orlando, FL 32803-4639. Meeting times, 1st & 3rd Tuesday, 7pm. Phone: (407) 425-4527. E-mail: GLCS@flamingopark.com. Support group.
CD/TS/SO— SERENITY: PO Box 220307, Hollywood FL 33022. (954) 436-9477.
E-mail: susan@aol.com. Support group.
TRI-ESS— GAMMA CHI BETA: P.O. Box 510045, Punta Gorda, FL 33951 (407) 382-8389 Alice, Tri-Ess Chapter, Meetings 2nd Saturday of each month. Support Group
CD/TS/SO— STARBURST: PO Box 17411, Clearwater FL 34622-0411. (813)523-8760. Support group.
Web:www.geocities.com/westhollywood/
stonewall/9222
Email: sarah56@worldnet.att.net
TS— ENCHANTE: A.C.P., 1180 Cleveland St., Clearwater FL 34615. Phone:( 813) 533- 0012, Amanda. Transsexual support group.
TG— TLC, P.O. Box 372711, Satellite Beach, FL 32937 (407) 858-2356 Karen, e-mail: haleightg@aol.com or kj6781@palmnet.net
TG/SO— TRANS/MISSION: Open support & discussion group for all TG people &
SO's meets the 3rd Saturday of each month at 3:00pm. FTM/SO discussion group meets the 1st & 3rd Saturdays of each month at 1:30pm (S&M/Kink-friendly). All meetings are held at the Center of Tampa
Bay, 4265 Henderson Ave, Ste. B. For more info/directions email: TransMissionFL @yahoo.com or write PO Box 17522,
Tampa, FL 33682.
GEORGIA
TRI-S— SIGMA EPSILON: PO Box 272, Rosewell GA 30077-0272. (770)552-4415. Web: mindspring.com/kerrico/ sigep.htm. E-mail: cheryll645@aol.com. Support group.
CD/TS/SO— ATLANTA GENDER EXPLORATIONS: P.O. Box 98330, Atlanta, Georgia 30359, Tel: (404) 250-8221 Email: ageinfo@ggea.org Web: www.transgender.org /tg/age Support Group
FTM — Georgia Boyz: Star, Email: star@elli-
jay.com
HAWAII
HAWAII TRANSGENDERED OUT- REACH: PO Box 4530, Honolulu HI 96812- 4530. (808)923-4270.
Email: tghawaii@poi.net. http://www.new- bies.net/htgo/ Hot Line 8am to 8pm, 7 days. Support group.
GAY & LESBIAN COMMUNITY CEN- TER: YWCA 47-388, HUI IWA St. #14-304, Kaneohe HI 96744-4416.
IDAHO
CD/TS/TG/SO— IDAHO TRANSGEN- DER SOCIETY: P.O. Box 7353, Boise, Idaho 83707 (208) 331-6669. Social Support Group
ILLINOIS
PARENTS AND FRIENDS OF TRANS- GENDER COMMUNITY: PFTC, c/o Ellie Altman, Northbrook IL 60062. (847) 564- 9496, e-mail: EllieAlt@aol.com. Support group.
CD-TRI-S— CHI CHAPTER: PO Box 40,
Wood Dale IL 60191-0040. (708) 383-1677. Email: clutriess@aol.com.
Web: users.aol.com/chitriess/trisss/ chim ain.htm. Support group.
TG— TRANSGENDER SPLENDOR SUPPORT GROUP: POB 441, Urbana, IL 61801. Tel: (217) 359-5971. Web: http: / / www.prairienet.org/ tsplendor Support group.
FTM— ILLINOIS BOYZ: POB 441, Urbana, IL 61801. Tel: (217) 359-5971. Web: http: / / www.prairienet.org/ tsplendor
ALL— TRANSGENDER OUTREACH PROJECT: National HTV Prevention Project, POB 441, Urbana, IL 61801. Tel:
(217) 359-5971.
http: / / www.prairienet.org/ tsplendor
CD/TS/SO— CENTRAL ILLINOIS GEN- DER ASSOCIATION: CIGA, PO Box 3082, Champaign, IL 61826-3082. Support group.
TG— CHICAGO GENDER SOCIETY, PO
Box 578005, Chicago, IL 60657. (708) 863- 7714
INDIANA
GLBT— INDIANA UNIVERSITY, GLBT STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES: 705 E.
7th st., Bloomington, In. 47405-3809 tel:
Transgender Tapestry #90 • IT
(812) 855-4252. E-mail:glbtserv@indiana.edu Web: http://www.indiana.edu/~glbtserv
CD/TS/FTM/MTF/SO — IGS: Attn: Linda BB, PO Box 425, Carmel IN 46032. (317)299-5377, Angela.
Email: kaylin@iquest.net Support group.
TONI— PO Box 2372, Portage IN 46268. Phone (219)929-8533. Support Group Email: jenfermaresl@juno.com.
FTM — Indiana Boyz: (Northern Indiana). Glen: Email: Glen22213@aol.com
CD/TS/SO/FTM/MTF— INTERNATION- AL GENDER SUPPORT (aka: Shrinking Violets): PO Box 425, Carmel, IN 46032. (317)781-0834. Support group.
TG— TRANSGENDER OUTREACH OF NORTHERN INDIANA Post Office Box 2372, Portage, IN 46368, Hotline Telephone: (219) 650-2142 e-mail: slay@netnitco.net. Support group.
CD/TS/TV/SO/FTM/MTF — IXE: PO Box 20710, Indianapolis IN 46220. Phone: (317)971-6976. Web:
http://members.aol.com/ixe/fish/ixe.html Email: IXE@aol.com. Support group.
FTM — IT'S A BOY: The group welcomes gender varient people on the FTM spec- trum and those who support them. Meets once a month at 6:00pm at the Diversity Center in Indianapolis / email: viragol8@hotmail.com or call Diversity Center (317) 639-4297
IOWA
TRI-S— IOWA ARTISTRY: Box 75, Cedar Rapids LA 52406. E-mail: thecross@inau.net. Support group.
KANSAS
TS-Support Line: Contact: Frances at 316- 795-4876. Email Fransie@oswego.net
CD/TS/SO— CROSSDRESSERS AND FRIENDS: CAF, Box 4092, Overland Park KS 66204. (913)791-3847. E-mail: jbfts® aol.com / Support.
Web: http/members. aol.com/kccaf.
CD/TS/SO— WICHITA TRANSGENDER ALLIANCE: PO Box 3002, Wichita KS 67001-3002. Bi-weekly meetings. Contact: Shelly 316-269-3104 or Krystine 316-688- 0816. Support group.
KENTUCKY
FTM— KENTUCKY BOYZ: Lee, 502-549- 5619; Email: alphavamp@aol.com (Louisville)
CD/TS/SO— THE BLUEGRASS BELLES:
c/o Angela, PO Box 20173, Louisville, KY 40250. (502)446-2175, digital pager, please enter "55" after your telephone number Email: angelaky@hotmail.com, efduhr@ukcc.uky.edu, dwilsOO@ukcc.uky.edu, or acasbeer@jcc- uky.campus.mci.net. Support group.
LOUISIANA
CD/TS/SO— GULF GENDER ALLIANCE:
PO Box 56836, New Orleans, LA 70156- 6836. (504) 943-1999. Support group Web: www.GGA.org
E-mail: InfoRequest@GGA.org
MAINE
ALL— TRANSUPPORT: Box 17622, Portland ME 04112. (207) 862-2063. Support.
ALL— MAINE GENDER RESOURCE AND SUPPORT SERVICE: c/o Jean Vermette, PO Box 1894, Bangor ME 04402- 1894. (207)862-2063. Education, referrals, outreach.
FTM— YANKEE BOYZ: A social/support group for those bom female and which 'woman'' as an identity does not fit. FTM's Transsexuals, Transgenderists, TG Butches, Stonebutches, and otherwise very mascu- line "guys" of all orientations welcome. Meets second Sunday of each month in Auburn, ME, 4-6pm. Info from PJ: (207) 783-4630. yankeeboyz@hotmail.com
FTM— MAINEBOYZ: PJ, e-mail: pjmears@megalink.net (Maine)
MARYLAND
TS— TRANQUILITY GENDER INFORMATION SOCIETY, BALTIMORE MARYLAND: Support and Social Group for gender varient individuals. Meetings 4th Saturday of the Month at 8pm. Gay Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore, 241 W. Chase Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201-4870. Contact: (410) 488-7074, email: tcraan@oao.com
CD— TRI-S CHI EPSILON SIGMA: con- tact Grace, PO. Box 505, Baltimore, MD 21022, e-mail: tri_ess@hotmail.com Web: http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywoo d /Stonewall/3432. Educational and social activities, monthly meetings, large couples contingent, extensive wives networking group.
FTM— BALTIMORE BOYZ: Mary (410)837-8888, Gary (410)392-3640.
CD/TS/SO— WASHINGTON-BALTI- MORE ALLIANCE: c/o H. Garfinkle, PO Box 1994, Silver Spring, MD 20915. (301)649-3960. Support group. Meets in DC Metro area.
TG/SO— TRANSGENDER SUPPORT GROUP OF BALTIMORE: c/o GLCCB
(Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore), 241 W. Chase St., Baltimore MD 21201. Phone (410)837-5445 10:00 a.m.— 6:00 p.m. M-F or (410)837-8888 7:00 p.m.— 10:00 p.m. evenings. Peer and family support group. Monthly meetings.
FTM— TRANS INFO PROJECT:
Information and education web for FTMs. Chat Site 'Alex's Garage ' for informal chat and Sunday night moderated discussions. E-mail: alexfox@erols.com
MASSACHUSETTS
ALL— FREEDOM FROM GENDER SOCI- ETY, c/o Ruth O'Connor, POB 1551, Brookline, MA 02446-1551.
ALL/CD/TS/SO/FTM/MTF— SUNSHINE CLUB: P.O. Box 564 Hadley, MA 01035- 0564. (413)-586-5004. E-mail: tbearll3@aol.com. Web: http://www.umass.edu/stonewall/ sun- shineclub.html Support group.
INTERSEX— MIDDLESEX GROUP:
P.O.Box 25, Newtonville, MA 02160
email: mdsx@juno.com 617-630-9263 Specific for intersex individuals.
ALL— TIFFANY CLUB OF NEW ENG- LAND, INC.: TCNE, PO Box 540071, Woburn MA 02454-0071. (781)891-9325 (answered live Tuesdays 7:00-10:00pm ET). Web: www.TCNE.org. Support group.
FRIENDS AND FAMILY SUPPORT TCNE, P.O. Box 540071, Waltham, MA 02454-0071. (781) 891-9325 Meets 2nd Friday of the month.
ALL— YOU'RE NOT ALONE: group explores different aspects of how being a Transperson affects you, your family, your life! Johanna at (781) 891-9325.
TS— CAMBRIDGE SUPPORT GROUP:
(617) 661-9332, meets 2 times per month,
J AENLA@erols.com
TS/TG— GENDER SUPPORT SERVICES FOR TSS (GISST): (617)227-6216 Education, Outreach and Referrals. Sponsors the Transgender Health Conference of New England each year.
FTM— COMAPSS: PO Box 540229, Waltham MA 02454-0229. (781) 899-2212.
1st Thursday evening of the month. FTM support group.
FTM — FTM Center, PO Box 642, Boston, MA 02130. (617) 971-9434 ftmcenter@mailci- ty.com "The voice of the transsexual man" Social events. Lionheart spirituality.
CD/TS/SO— INVESTMENTS: PO Box 2194, Orleans MA 02653.
Web: www.transgender.org/innv.
Support group.
ALL-FREE Boyz: Northampton, MA Email: Frankie Hill frankiejlh@aol.com Support.
CD/TS/MTF/FTM— TRANS-CHAT: Write: Trans-Chat, P.O Box 491, Auburn, MA 01501. 2nd & 4th Thursday night of each month from 7:00 to 9:00pm. Support Group in Worcester, MA. Michael at (508) 770-9044 e-mail: Transgndr@aol.com
BI GALA— UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS— LOWELL, SIC(S)
Box #34, Lowell, MA 01854 e-mail: BiGALA@student.uml.edu
BOSTON ALLIANCE OF GAY AND LESBIAN YOUTH (BAGLY): is a youth- led, adult-supervised social support group for GLBT youth to age 22. Meetings are held weekly at St. John the Evangelist Church, 35 Bowdoin St, Beacon Hill, near the state house. Wed 6-9pm, Sun 2-5.
(617) 437-7683, Web: www.bagly.org.
GAY & LESBIAN ADOLESCENT SOCIAL SERVICES (GLASS) runs a com- munity center providing peer support, adult counseling, and safe haven for youth age 13-25. Near Newbury St & Mass Ave, open M-F 4-8pm. 617-437-7683
GET IT, GENDER EDUCATION FOR TRANS AND INTERSEXED TEENS
Offers peer support for Pre/Transitioning Youth. Facilitated by Chris Markowski, Executive Director Project 10 East. Every Monday 6pm at Boston GLASS. Contact (617) 266-3349 or (617) 864-GLBT.
PROJECT 10 EAST: maintains an office and drop-in center. Education-oriented,
particularly helpful for those dealing with in-school issues. Teen afternoon activities Wednesdays & Fridays 3-6pm. Office hours M-F 9am-lpm. Old Cambridge Baptist Church, 1145 Mass. Ave, Harvard Square, Cambridge. (617) 864-4528, http://Quniverse.com/plOe
SIDNEY BORUM HEALTH CENTER pro- vides a free clinic for primary health, men- tal & substance abuse care for GLBT youth age 13-25. 130 Boylston ST. near Tremont, walk-in hours 4-7pm. (61 7) 457-8140
STEPPINGTONE: POB 3789, 4 Central Street, Worchester MA 01613,
(508) 770-9044.
E-mail: Steppingtone-4u@yahoo.com
VICTIM RECOVERY PROGRAM, FENWAY COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER: provides counseling & advocacy for GLBT victims of hate crime, domestic violence, sexual assault or police abuse. If you've been victimized, this may be the best place to start getting help. They are even tracking hate crimes against transfolk. 7 Haviland St, near Boylston St & Mass Ave. 617-267-0900 x311 or (800)834-3242 x311
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS: There's a T-oriented AA meeting every week at IFGE in Waltham (call 781-899-2212 for info), and a T-friendly Gay AA meeting every day in Boston. Call Central Services for a free copy of their meeting list. (617) 426-9444
YOUTH: FATHER BILL'S: (617) 451-2011
FTM— EAST COAST FEMALE-TO-MALE GROUP (ECFTMG): PO Box 60585, Florence Station, Northhampton, MA 01062, (413) 584-7616. Meetings 2nd Sunday of the month. Peer support for all female-to-male transgendered, crossdressers, transsexuals, and our significant others.
PRISON PROJECT: Kia Earp, P.O. Box 1224, Boston, MA 02117-0224 E-mail: prisonproject@yahoo.com (617) 541-9338
MICHIGAN
CD/TS/SO— I.M.E. OF WESTERN MICHI- GAN: PO Box 1153, Grand Rapids MI 49501. Web: www.iserv.net/~ime. Support.
TS— AFTER SIX SUPPORT GROUP:
Western Michigan. Contact: Frances Campbell, PO Box 126, Comstock Park, MI 49321-0126
FTM— MICHIGAN BOYZ: (Kalamazoo, MI). Jonathan, (616) 345-9070;
Email: tushu@complink.net
ALL— CROSSROADS CHAPTER, INC.
PO Box 1245, Royal Oak, MI 48068-1245. (313) 537-3267.
Web: detroit.geekbabe.com/ crossroads. Email:crtvMich@aol.com
ALL— NATIONAL GENDER DYSPHO- RIA ORG.(NGDO): PO Box 02732, Detroit, MI 48202. (313) 842-5258. Peer Counseling, support group.
FRIENDS NORTH T-GROUP: P.O. Box 562 Traverse City, MI 49685-0562.
(616) 946-1804
Web: www.members.tripod.com/ -FriendsNorth/groups.html
78 • Transgender Tapestry #90
TS— TRI-COUNTY TRANSSEXUAL SUPPORT GROUP: Electrolysis Unlimited, 89 South Blvd. at Rochester Rd. (1/4 mi south of M-59) Suite 500, Troy-Rochester, Michigan. Contact: Ildiko Svoren 248-879- 2232 Liz A., email: chimera@home.com. Meetings are free. Please call before your first meeting.
MINNESOTA
GENDER EDUCATION CENTER: GEC,
PO Box 1861, Maple Grove MN 55311.
Debra Davis, Director. (612)424-5445, FAX (612)425-8595. Educational outreach.
TRI-S— BETA GAMMA: Box 8591, Minneapolis MN 55408. (612) 870-8536. Email: triessbg@tri-esss.com. Web: http:/ /www.tri-ess.com. Support group.
YOUTH DISTRICT 202: 2524 Nicollet Ave., So. Minneapolis MN 55408. (612)871- 5559. Fax (612)871-1445. Safe place for GLBT youth.
CD— CITY OF LAKES CROSSGENDER COMMUNITY: CLCC, City of Lakes Crossgender Community: PO Box 14844, Minneapolis, MN 55414. (651) 229-3613. Social support for the transgender commu- nity in Minnesota.
TRANSGENDER HIV/AIDS PREVEN- TION PROGRAM: Human Sexuality,
Dept, of Family Practice and Community Health, U Minnesota Medical School, 1300 So. 2nd Street, Suite 180, Minneapolis MN 55454. (612)625-1500, FAX (612)626-8311. Educational outreach.
MISSISSIPPI
TRANSSUPPORT LINE
Contact Frances at (316) 795-4876.
Email: Francie@oswego.net
AURORA: c/o Melanie Cuevas, P.O. Box 922, Kosciusko, MS 39090
TRI-S— BETA CHI MISSISSIPPI: PO Box
31253,Jackson, MS 39206-1253. Lee Frances, Secretary, (601)982-7678 (24 hrs). Support .
MISSOURI
TRANSSUPPORT LINE:
Contact: Frances at 316-795-4876.
Email Fransie@oswego.net
CD/TS/SO— ST LOUIS GENDER FOUN- DATION: StLGF, PO Box 9433, St. Louis MO 63117. (314) 367-4128. StLGF@aol.com. Web:
http: / / members.aol.com/ stlgf 1 /index.html
TRI-S— SIGMA MU: PO Box 2502#298, Springfield Mo 65801. Phone: (417)831- 3433. Email: LSolomon@mail.orion.org.
NEBRASKA
CD/TS/SO— RIVER CITY GENDER ALLIANCE: RCGA, PO Box 3112, Omaha NE 68103. (402) 398-1255. E-mail: sgib- bons@synergy.net. Support group.
NEVADA
TRI-S— THETA UPSILON GAMMA: PO
Box 42401, Las Vegas NV 89116. (702) 387- 3891. Email: TUGinLV@juno.com Web: www.geocities.com/westholly- wood/ park/ 1880
TG/CD/TS/SO — Transgender Support Las Vegas, 1 1 20 Almond Tree Lane, Suite 207, Las Vegas, NV 89104.
Voice mail: (702) 392-2132,
e-mail: tgsupport.lv@usa.net Web:
www.transder.org/tg/vegas_tg/index.htm
NEW HAMPSHIRE
PFLAG OF NEW HAMPSHIRE: T-SON, Tel: (603) 622-4096, NHTSON@aol.com
CD— TRI-ESS NEW ENGLAND, P.O Box
7681, Nashua, NH 03060-7681. Email: gerri.buchanan@writeme.com.
Web: www.tri-ess.com
WRITERS ETC.: c/o Abbey M. Greene, PO Box 6211, West Franklin NH 03235. (603) 934-3379. Support group.
G/L/Bi/T/Q YOUTH— SEACOAST OUT- RIGHT: PO Box 842, Portsmouth NH 03802. Phone: (603)431-1013. Resource, referral, support for those 21 and younger; referral only for those over 21.
NEW JERSEY
TRI-S— SIGMA NU RHO: SNR, 1092 St Georges Ave., Suite 234, Rahway NJ 07065- 2664. Phone: (908) 826-5287. 24-hour hot- line (800)480-3152, in near states. E-mail: carolannsnr@juno.com. Support group.
TRI-S— CHI DELTA MU: PO Box 1, River Edge NJ 07661-0001. (800)484- 7593(code4985). Support group. E-mail: cdm81@hotmail.com. Web: www.geocities.com/westhollywood/height s/7396
CD/TS/SO— MONMOUTH/OCEAN TRANS GENDER: MOTG, PO Box 2972, Princeton NJ 08543-2972. (732)219-9094. Email: vikkimmotg@aol.com. Support group.
CD/TS/SO— TRANSIT: (908) 526-2369 Support group.
CD/TS— NORTHERN NEW JERSEY:
c/o Ms. Lynda Frank, PO Box 9192, Morristown, NJ 07960. (973) 663-0772. E-mail, lyndafranknyc@yahoo.com Support group, information & referral.
CD/TS— NJSUPPORT: c/o T. Risley, 301 F Saunders Ave., Bellmawr, NJ 08031. (609)933-2233. Meetings 1st Saturday of the month, Unitarian Universalist Church of Washington Crossing. Renaissance affiliate.
TS— SINGLES SOCIAL GROUP: for pre and post op mtf and single understanding men. A.J. Gilberti, 609-296-6065.
5-10pm. E-mail: agilberti@yahoo.com or agilberti@hotmail.com
NEW MEXICO
CD— TRI-S— PHI FIESTA!: 8200 Montgomery NE, #241, Albuquerque NM 87109. Phone: (505)299-2533. Support group.
TG/MTF-FTM— TRANSGENDER COM- MUNITY GROUP: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM. Phone (505)260- 1727. Email: egypt@unm.edu. Supportive, educational and social space for ALL trans- gendered identities. Meets every Monday night.
THE TRANSGENDER SUPPORT GROUP/ALBUQUERQUE. (505) 342-8077 Email Witast@aol.com
NEW YORK
CD/TS/SO— IMPERIAL QUEENS & KINGS OF GREATER NEW YORK: 80
Eighth Avenue, Suite 301, New York NY 10011. (212)229-1968 days, (212)627-1969 evenings. Open social group.
FTM— NEW YORK BOYZ: Sam, Email: srwl8@columbia.edu (NYC)
ALL— GENDER IDENTITY PROJECT:
Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center, 208 West 13th St. New York NY 10011 Tel: (212)620-7310. Fax: (212) 924- 2657. Email: rblumenstein@gaycenter.org Support groups surrounding gender explo- ration, assists people with substance abuse and HIV /AIDS prevention Education
BI-GENDER RAP GROUP: c/o Lynda Frank, 330 W. 45th St. Apt. 3H, New York, NY 10036. Meets 2nd Monday each month, 6-8 pm in lower Manhattan. Contact: Lynda Frank, (212)765-3561.
CD/TS/SO— CROSSDRESSERS INTL:
404 W. 40th St., #2, New York NY 10018. (212) 570-7389, or (212) 564-4847 on Wed. E-mail: cdinyc@aol.com.
Web: www.members.tripod.com/
-CDINYC
CD/TS/SO— LONG ISLAND FEMME EXPRESSION: LIFE, Support Group, P.O. Box 1311, Water Mill, NY. 11976-1311 Tel: 516-283-1333, answered live Sun. Mon. Tues eves, from 7:30-10pm Speaker Available!
CD/TS/SO— TRANSGENDERISTS' INDEPENDENCE CLUB: TGIC, PO Box
13604, Albany NY 12212-3604. (518)436- 4513 live Thurs. 7-9 p.m. or leave a message and instructions for calling back. Support group, e-mail: vicky_s@juno.com
CD/TS/SO— TRANSGENDER NET- WORK: PO Box 1611, South Rd Annex, Poughkeepsie NY 12601-0611. Support group. 1st & 3rd Fridays
TS— METAMORPHOSIS: PO Box 6260, Broadway Station, Long Island City, NY 11106-0260. (718)728-4615. Support group.
ALL— ZAPPALORTI SOCIETY, GLBT, PSYCHARATRIC SURVIVORS: Weekly meetings. Sat 2-4pm, at the Lesbian Gay Services Center, 208 W. 13th Street, New York City, west of 7th ave. (718) 422-1838
EXPRESSING OUR NATURE (EON):
745 N. Sauna St, Syracuse, NY 13208 (312) 426-1658 - Please leave message. E-mail: ANNENNO@aol.com. Meetings are held on the 2nd & 4th Saturdays of the month at 8 PM.
BUFFALO BELLES: PO Box 1701, Amherst, NY 14226 (716) 446-2661. E-mail: buffalo_bells@juno.com. Web: www.geoci- ties.com/WestHollywood / Village/ 3339
NORTH CAROLINA
FTM— NORTH CAROLINA BOYZ: Terry (919) 639-6158. E-mail: TLCRD96@aol.com
CD/TS/SO— CAROLINA TRANS-SENSU- AL ALLIANCE: 4037 East Independence Blvd., Suite 111, Charlotte, NC 28205,
(704) 531-9988
TRI-S — KAPPA BETA: c/o Corresponding Secy, PO Box 12101, Charlotte NC 28220- 2101. (704)565-5034. E-mail: dajones @infoave.net. Support group.
TRI-S— CHI CHI RHO-TRI-ESS: Crystal Coast Rose, PO Box 733, Bridgeton, NC 28519. Support group.
CD/TS/SO— PHOENIX TRANSGENDER SUPPORT: Phoenix, PO Box 18332, Asheville NC 28814. (828) 669-3889.
Support group. E-mail: jessicaash@aol,com.
CD/TS/SO— TRIANGLE GENDER SOCI- ETY (TGS): c/o David & Helen Rogers, 5425 Turkey Farm Rd., Durham, NC 27705. Phone (919)968-8070. Support group.
NORTH DAKOTA
CD/TS/TV— TRANSGENDER SUPPORT GROUP OF NORTH DAKOTA: c/o
Debbie Ann Somero, PO Box 644, Wahpeton, ND 58074-0644. Phone (701)642- 1427. Support group.
OHIO
ALL— IT'S TIME OHIO: P.O Box 21310, Columbus, OH 43221, (614) 470-4245, e-mail: itoh@stargate.com webhttp: / / www.Geocities.com/WestHolly wood/ 7977. Political Action
CD/TS/SO— CRYSTAL CLUB: PO Box 287, Columbus OH 43068-0287. tel: (614) 844- 5371. http://www.gender.org/cc/ email: cc@gender.org
TRI-S— ALPHA OMEGA: Box 2053, Sheffield Lake OH 44054-0053. (216)556- 0067. Support group.
CD/TS/SO— CROSS-PORT: PO Box 1692, Cincinnati OH 45201. (606)581-3711,
E-mail: wgbn68d@prodigy.com. Support group.
TRANS FAMILY OF CLEVELAND
Founded to provide support and education for transgendered persons and their fami- lies and significant others. Robert and Karen Gross (216) 691-HELP Email: kittengr@aol.com Web: www.geocities/westhollywood/4378
OKLAHOMA
ALL— TRANSUPPORT LINE:
Contact: Frances at (316) 795-4876.
Email: Fransie@oswego.net
TRI-S— SIGMA BETA: PO Box 42122, Oklahoma City OK 73123. Support group.
OREGON
TS- TRANSSEXUAL PEER SUPPORT GROUP: 2400 NE Broadway, Portland OR 97204. Phone: (503)441-6746. Ask for Tracy. All TS of all ages and trans-curious are invited to attend. Thursdays at 7p.m. at
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 79
Metropolitan Community Church NE Broadway at 24th Ave. E-mail: tiffanysue@altavista.net Support group.
TV/CD/TS/TG/SO— NORTHWEST GEN- DER ALLIANCE: NWGA, PO Box 4928, Portland OR 97208. (503)646-2802. E-mail: nwga@teleport.com. Web: www.teleport.com/~nwga/ Support group.
CD/TS/SO— CAPITOL CITY CHAPTER:
PO Box 3312, Salem OR 97302. Support group.
TS — SALMACIS SOCIETY/VERSITILE WOMEN: PO Box 1604, Eugene OR 97440- 1604. (541)688-4282. Service & information.
TG— INTERMOUNTAIN TRANSGEN- DER OUTREACH: 1524 Monroe Avenue,
La Grande OR 97850. (541)962-3466. Email: keol@eosc.osshe.edu. Support group.
TRI-S— RHO GAMMA/ROGUE VALLEY GIRLS: PO Box 5551, Grants Pass OR 97527.
TS— TRANS-SUPPORT: PO Box 66913, Portland, OR 97290-6913. (503) 735-3989. E-mail: tport483@aol.com. Web: www.trans- port.org. Post and Pre Op support groups.
PENNSYLVANIA
CD— TRI-S CHI EPSILON SIGMA:
Concact Yvonne Sullivan, P.O. Box 3469, York, PA 17405, e-mail: tri_ess@hotmail.com / Web: http:/ /www.geocities.com/WestHolly- wood/Stonewall/3432. Educational and social activities, monthly meetings, large couples contingent, extensive wives net- working group.
FTM — PITBOYZ: Dan & Michelle E-mail: windyl@aabe.com.
CD/TS— TRANSPITT: PO Box 3214, Pittsburgh PA 15230. (412)224-5902.
Web: www.transgender.org/tg/tpitt/ Support.
CD— TRAVELERS EXPRESS: PO Box 150, Falls Creek PA 15840. (814)375-7651. Central PA region. Self expression in 100% non clos- eted environment. Passing not an issue, presentability essential. Leave message.
CD/TS/SO— ERIE SISTERS: ESCC, 1903 West 8th Street, Suite 261, Erie PA 16505. Email: eriesister@aol.com. Support group.
CD/TS/SO— RENAISSANCE— LOWER SUSQUEHANNA VALLEY CHAPTER:
Renaissance — LSV, PO Box 2122,
Harrisburg PA 17105-2122. (717)780-1578. Email: lsv@ezonline.com. Web: http://www.ezonline.com/lsv. Support group.
CD/TS/SO— RENAISSANCE— LEHIGH VALLEY/POCONO AREA: Renaissance LV, PO Box 3624, Allentown PA 18106. Phone: (610)821-2955. Support group.
FTM— LANCASTER BOYZ: Tom (717)
892- 4999. E-mail: malesic@prolog.net. (Philly area)
TS— THE PHILADELPHIA TRANSSEXUAL SUPPORT GROUP (PTSSG), 1201 Locust Street, Washington West Project, Philadelphia Meets in the
office of the Transgender Health Action.
The 1st Saturday of each month at 4pm. e- mail: rica@netaxs.com
FTM — WEXIST Meetings are held at William Way Community Center, Phila- delphia, on the 2nd Saturday of each month, 5:30pm. to 7:00pm.
For additional information contact us:
Voice: (215) 848-7674 box 6 Email: WeXist@aol.com WeXist is a Philadelphia-based non-political FTM sup- port group. We are opento all who are assigned female at birth and have gender identity issues or questions, or are in need of support for gender concerns.
CD/TS/SO— CROSS DRESSERS INTER- NATIONAL: CDI, PO Box 61, Easton PA 18044. S. Kristine James, Director, Karen Cioe, NYC Coordinator. Support group.
CD/TS/SO— RENAISSANCE— EDUCA- TION ASSOC. INC.: Renaissance GPC, 987 Old Eagle School Road, Suite 719, Wayne PA 19087. (610)975-9119. E-mail: ben- salem@bbs.cpcn.com. Web: http://www.ren.org. Support group.
FTM— PHILLY BOYZ: Steve (215)546-6444. E-mail: shock@asc.upenn.edu.
CD/TS/SO/MTF/FTM— TRANSYOUTH SERVICES, UNITY INC.: 1207 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19107. (215)851-1958 or (215)851-1912. Community services and "Butch Brothers" Philadelphian FTM support
RHODE ISLAND
ALL — Brown University Transgender Support Group meets every Monday at 8pm in the Brown University Sarah Doyle Women's Center on Meeting Street, between Thayer and Brown Streets.
Contact: Tucker_Lieberman@Brown.edu
TENNESSEE
TRI-S— ALPHA PI OMEGA: c/o Laury W PO Box 871, Brentwood TN 37204-0871. Email: laurywl@mindspring.com. Web: http://members.aol.com/ apotris/aponash. htm. Support group.
CD/TS/SO— TENNESSEE VALS: PO Box
92335, Nashville TN 37209-2335. (615)664- 6883 voice mail. E-mail: jlovel@ix. netcom. com. Homepage:
http: / www.transgender.org / tg / tvals/ . Support group
FTM— TENNESSEE BOYZ: (Nashville, TN).: Dustin, (615) 431-9540; FTM Resource Email: CyberBum7@aol.com
TEXAS
FTM— ALAMO BOYZ. SOUTH TEXAS
Our webpage is: lonestar.texas.net/~debra
TG-FRIENDLY— ABLIED QUEER:
1517 B. Missouri, Houston TX 7700 EM: james_e@iah.com
CD/TS/SO— METROPLEX CD CLUB: PO Box 141924, Irving TX 75014. (972) 264- 7103. e-mail: domiss@flash.net Web: www.flash.net/~domega Support group.
CD/TS— GULF COAST TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY, P.O. Box 66643, Houston, TX 77266; Call (713)780-4282.
TRI-S— NU EPSILON TAU: PO Box 14096, Arlington TX 76094. (214)490-5738. Support group.
CD— HELPING CDs ANONYMOUS: HCDA, 239 Westheimer (Office of Suzanne Anderson Properties), Houston TX 77006. Tel: (281) 520-3610 (pager)
Email: brenda@firstnethou.com.
Support Group.
CD/TS/SO— BOULTON & PARK SOCI- ETY: PO Box 17, Bulverde, TX 78163 (830)980-7788 live Tues. 6-9 pm CT. Email: tx t party@aol.com. Support group.
TATS: P.O. Box 142 Bellaire, Texas 77401,
Tel: (713) 780-4282
Email: TATS@Genderweb.org
WEST TEXAS GENDER ALLIANCE: 5350 LLano, Abilene TX 79605. Email: temsim@juno.com.
CD/TS/SO— AUSTIN SECOND IMAGE:
PO Box 679, Leander, TX 78646,
(512) 515-5460 personally answered Wednesday 7-9pm. email caseyalena@yahoo.com web: www.angelfire.com/tx/ AustinSecondlmage. Support group
CD/TG/TS/TV/GLB— CENTRAL TEXAS TRANSGENDER SOCIETY: A social group comprised of those who aspire to the belief that the best therapy is social interaction and having fun with friends and people who don't care or notice which category you fall into.
Web: www.cttgs.org email: msdevin @yahoo.com.
TS— GENDER CONTINUUM: A free support & education group that meets at the Waterloo Counseling Center on Wednesday nights at 7:00 PM. The 1st and 3rd Wednesdays are for FtMs, the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays are for MtFs. Contact Katy Koonce, LMSW at (512) 444-9922.
UTAH
TS/SO— WESTERN TRANS-SEXUAL SUPPORT NETWORK: support group for Transsexuals, SOs, and friends. Western Transsexual Support Network 4667 Holladay Blvd, Ste 2,
Salt Lake City, UT 84117. (801) 277-8025
CD/TS/SO— ALPHA RHO, SALT LAKE CITY: PO Box 571242, Salt Lake City, UT 84157-1242. (801)553-8141. Support group.
CD/TS/SO— ENGENDERED SPECIES: PO
Box 11897, Salt Lake City UT 84147. (801)320-0551. Support group.
CD/TS/TG/SO— SALT LAKE GENDER CONSORTIUM: Genevera Martin Pres.,
PO Box 651073, Salt Lake City UT 84165- 1073. (801)576-1416. E-mail: geneveram@aol.com. Support Group.
VERMONT
CD/TS— TRANS: (802) 472-8115. Meets 1st & 3rd Tuesdays in Burlington. Support group.
CD/TS— VERMONT TRANSGENDER SUPPORT GROUP: For information leave message at (802)860-8430. Support group.
VIRGINIA
CD-TRI-S CHI EPSILON SIGMA:
(DC/Northem Virginia) Contact Joan Henderson, P.O. Box 1728, Herndon, VA 20172 e-mail: tri_ess@hotmail.com Web: http://www.geocities.com/West- Hollywood/Stonewall/3432. Educational and social activities, monthly meetings, large couples contingent, extensive wives networking group.
CD-TRI-S CHI EPSILON SIGMA:
(Richmond/Williamsberg) Contact Lucy Stone, P.O. Box 382, Norge, VA, 17405 e- mail: tri_ess@hotmail.com Web: http:/ / www.geocihes.com/WestHollywoo d/Stonewall/3432. Educational and social activities, monthly meetings, large couples contingent, extensive wives networking .
TG-LADIES FIRST SOCIAL CLUB:
Dumfries, VA (703)441-0283. E-mail lauraBCD@aol.com
TRANS-GENDER EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION: PO Box 16036, Arlington VA 22215. (301)949-3822. E-mail: tgea@juno.com. Web: http://www.tgguide.com/guide/dc/ tgea~ndx.html. Support group.
WASHINGTON
INGERSOLL GENDER CENTER FTM GROUP: We welcome folks from all walks of life and all orientations and identities. We also invite SOFFA's of FTM's to attend, group is the 4th Saturday of every month, from 11am - lpm at Ingersoll Gender Center (1812 E Madison, Suite 106) Seattle, WA. If you'd like any more information about our group, please feel free to contact me at schreid@wdni.com or you can visit our web at www.ingersollcenter.org/
CD/TS-CINDERELLA CIRCLE: 304 W. Champion, Bellingham WA 98225 (360)416- 1437 Email: mhowe@pioneemet.net Web: http: / / www.pioneemet.net/mhowe/ Support.
FTM— SPECTRUM SUPPORT GROUP:
2 support groups per month for those born female bodied but who live with masculine gender expression. Meetings are Free. Located downstairs at Beyond the Edge Cafe, 703 E. Pike Seattle, WA. First and 4th Wednesday of the month 7- 9pm. (206) 949-7469 Spencer (contact per- son). email: MstrSpence@aol.com
CD/TS/SO— PAPILLON:
C/O R2C2, 315 W Mission Spokane, WA 99205
DC/SO— EMERALD CITY:
PO Box 31318, Seattle, WA 98103.
Web: www.adminw.com/em
WASHINGTON, DC
FTM— DC BOYZ: Adam (301)270-0372. E- mail: romandede@aol.com. (Metro DC.)
CD/TS/SO— PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays): 1101 — 14th St. NW, Suite 1030, Washington, D.C. 20005. Phone (202) 638-4200.
Fax (202) 638-0243. E-mail: info@pflag.org. Web: http://www.pflag.org.
80 • Transgender Tapestry #90
CD/TS/SO — WASHINGTON-BALTI- MORE ALLIANCE: c/o H Garfinkle, PO Box 1994, Silver Spring, MD 20915. Phone (301)649-3960. Support group. Meets in metro D C.
TG— TRANSGENDER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION of Washington DC: Web: www.zzapp.org or e-mail: tgea@zzapp.org
WISCONSIN
CD/TS/SO— GEMINI GENDER GROUP:
PO Box 44211, Milwaukee WI 53214. (voice-
mail). (414)297-9328
E-mail: 75261.1443@compuserv.com.
Web: www.netwrx.net/~ggg. Support
LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER CAMPUS CENTER,
Memorial Union, 800 Langdon Street, Madison, WI 53706
BAHAMAS
GLBT— HOTLINE (242) 328-1816 from 8pm-10pm. Mon-Lesbian Issues ask for Dianna. Tues. Transgender Issues ask for Connie Wed. Gay Issues ask for David.
CANADA
QUEBEC
TS/SO— FACTT— QUEBEC: Box 293, Cote de Neiges Post Office, 5858 Cote de Neiges Blvd., Montreal, Quebec, CANADA H3S 2S6. French-speaking referrals, medical and psychological services and support group.
CD/TS/SO— CLUB MET: 4113 Dorion Street, Montreal, Quebec, CANADA H2K 3B8. (514)528-8874. Support group. (Formerly TAM.)
TS/SO— TRANSSEXUALS IN PRISON:
Non-prisoners contact Dee Farmer, 23288037, PO Box 4000, Springfield MO 65808. Prisoners contact Mrs. Patricia Fisher, Succ 293 Cote-des-Neiges, 5858 Cote-des-Neiges Blvd, Montreal, QC, CANADA H3S 2S6.
LESPECTRE (Montreal): 514-528-1700 Michelle de Ville
TRANVESTIS MONTREAL:
email: mac@mlink.net/~mac/tvm.html
ONTARIO
TS— TRANSITION SUPPORT: The
Church Street Community Centre, 519 Church Street, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M4Y 2C9. Support group. 2nd & 4th Fridays 7-10pm
CD/TS/SO— XPRESSIONS: PO Box 223, Station A, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5W 1B2. (416) 410-6949.
Web: www.xpressions.org.
Support group.
CD/TS— STREET OUTREACH SER- VICES: c/o W. Travers, 622 Yonge St, 2nd FI, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M4Y 1Z8. (416)926-0744 (24 hours). Multitude of ser- vices for TG youth.
IS— PATRICIA FLORA: PO BOX 425, Postal Station C, 1117 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M6J 3P5.
CD/TS/SO/FTM/MTF— TAKE A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE: 161 Gerrard St. E, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5A 2E4. (416) 921-6112 (24hr). TS support group, profes- sional services. Email: info@wildside.org. Web: www.wildside.org.
FTM/SO— CANADIAN BOYZ
Marcus Charles Frappier (416) 466-0235 Email: mc@oil.ca
CD/TS/SO— GENDER MOSAIC: PO Box 7421, Vanier Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA K1L8E4. (819)770-1945. Support group.
FTM— ONTARIO FEMALE TO MALE NETWORK: 378-532 Montreal Road, Ottawa, ON, K1K 4R4 613-742-5221 Email: onftm@cyberus.ca
OTTAWA TS DISCUSSION GROUP:
P.O. Box 42067, RPO St, Laurent, Ottawa, ON, K1K 4L8, E-mail: ts-ottawa@cana- da.co, Web:
members.xoom.com/ottawas/
SO-SOS CLUB, The 519 Church St. Community Certre, 519 Church street, Totonto, ON M4Y 2C9 Email: sosclub@idirect.ca Web: webhome.idirect.com/~players
MANITOBA
CD/TS/SO— PRAIRIE ROSE GENDER GROUP: PRGG, Box 23 Grp 4 RR1,
Dugald, Manitoba, ROE 0K0. CANADA. (204) 257-2759. Support group.
CD/TS/SO— MASQUERADE: c/o Lady Godiva Boutique, 832 Corydon Ave., Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, R3M 0Y2, Support.
CD/TS/SO— RAINBOW RESOURCE CENTRE: POB 1661 Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada R3C 2Z6. (204) 474-0212, FAX: (204) 478-1160. Toll-free in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario: 1-888-399-0005. E-mail: wglrc@escape.ca
ALBERTA
CD/TS/SO— ILLUSIONS SOCIAL CLUB EDMONTON Box 356, Main Post Office Edmonton, AB. T5J 2J6 Our phone # is (403) 988-3294
Email: edm_illusions@juno.com
TRI-S— PHI SIGMA: Box 81115, 755 Lake Bonavista Drive S.E., Calgary, Alberta CANADA T2J 7C9. Phone: (403)271-6247. Support group.
CD/TS/SO— ILLUSIONS SOCIAL CLUB:
c/o B&B Emporium, 426 8th Ave. S.E., Calgary. Alberta, Canada T2G 0L7 Phone (403) 265-7789
EDMONTON TRANSGENDER SUPPORT LINE: (403) 988-3738
BRITISH COLUMBIA
TS— TRANSSEXUAL SUPPORT GROUP:
Dr. Angela Wensley, 14905 32nd Avenue, White Rock, British Columbia, CANADA V4P 1A4. (604)536-2053. Support group.
CD/SO— CORN BURY SOCIETY: Box
3745, Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA V6B 3Z1. Support group.
(604) 862-1321,
Email: cornbury@bc.sympatico.ca Web: www.transgender.org/tg/cornbury/
CD/TS— FOUNDATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF TRANS-GEN- DERED PEOPLE'S SOCIETY: FATE,
1-1727 William Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA V5L 2R5 (604)254-9591.
TG/TS/CD— ZENITH FOUNDATION:
Box 46, 8415 Granville Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA V6P 4Z9.
(604) 261-1695. Web: www.GenderWeb.org/ -zenith/ e-mail: Tamaras@istar.ca
BC FTM NETWORK: P.O. Box 10, 1895 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC,
V5N 4A6 (604) 862-1321 Email: bcftmnet@hotmail.com
DREAM GIRLS P.O. Box 535, Kamloops, BC V2C 5L7
NOVA SCOTIA
ATG (ATLANTIC TRANSGENDER)
in Halifax Email: atggrp@geocities.com Web: www. geocities.com/WestHollywood /7557/
VALLEY PRIDE (KENTVILLE)
Email: mike.giffin@ns.sympatico.ca Web: www. geocities.com/ WestHollywood/ Heights/2377/
PUERTO RICO
SIDA DE PUERTO RICO: PO Box 36-4842, San Juan PR 00936-4842. Phone (787)782- 9600. Fax (809)782-1411. HIV/AIDS out- reach organization.
SIDA DE PUERTO RICO: Calle 16 SE #1200 Caparra Terrace, Rio Piedras PR 00921. Phone (787)782-9600 Fax (787)782- 1411. HTV/AIDS outreach organization.
SIDA DE PUERTO RICO: Calle Estrella #30, Ponce PR 00731. Phone (787)844-9600. Fax (787)841-1485. HIV/AIDS outreach organization.
MEXICO
GUADALAJARA, JALISO, MEXICO
44190. Cris-Lida
E-mail: crisalidagdl@usa.net
Web: www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/
Village/5613/
AgrupaciUn Mexicana de Travestis, Crossdressers, Transgenderistas y Transexuales. Soporte, Apoyo y Servicios VISITANOS!
SPAIN
BARCELONA: COLECTIVO DE TRANSEXUALES DE CATALUNYA (CTC) Meeting Mondays 7-9pm, Tel: 34 93 3005946, e-mail: lenaimoi@pangea.org Mailing Address: Apartado de correos Num. 32081, Barcelona Spain 08080
MADRID: CLINICA ISADORA, Pirineos 7, Madrid, Spain Tel: 34 91 3111000, Fax: 34 91 3116238, E-mail: isadora@omc.telprof.es Coordinator: Empar Pineda Mon-Fre 10:30am — 5pm. Director: Dr. S.Z. Chami. Surgeons: Dr. Chami and Dr. Hage from Free University of Amsterdam.
TS— COLETIVO DE TRANSEXUALES DE CATALUNA: C. Balmes, 70, lo la, 08830 Sant Boi de Lobregat, Barcelona. Phone: 08080 3454 6398 Wed. 7.30-9 pm. Please speak Spanish.
TS/FTM/MTF — IDENTIDAD DE GEN- ERO: Apartado 3023, Granada 18080. Non- profit support group.
ARGENTINA
TS— TRANSSEXUALS FOR THE RIGHT OF LIFE AND IDENTITY: TRANSDEVI,
Casilla de Correo 151, C.P. 1748 Grab Rodriguez, Buenos Aires.
BRAZIL
TS— PURPURINA (GLITTER) PROJECT:
Katia Monteiro, no. 55 Rua DA Gloria, #30, Gloria, Rio de Janeiro. Phone: 02-252-4757. FAX: 02-227-5944. Educational outreach. AIDS awareness, referrals.
TS— GRUPO BRASILEIRO de TRANSEX- UAIS (Brazilian Transsexual's Assoc.):
Caixa Postal 1097, Cuiaba-MT 78.005-970.
AFRICA
NIGERIA
TRANSFORMATION SECOND SELF:
c/o Jane Enuneku, KM 4 Idiroko Road, PO Box 1006, OTA, OGUN STATE, WEST AFRICA. Tel: 039-722615 Fax: 039-722467
SOUTH AFRICA
PHOENIX: c/o Desiree Dexter, PO Box 1332, Springs, 1560, Gauteng. Phone:
+27111 362 5247.
SATRU: (S. AFRICAN TRANSEXUAL RESEARCH UNIT) PO Box 87283, Houghton, Johannesburg 2041 .
ENGLAND
ALL — AGENDER: Vinnie or Suzanna, c/o Inpatients Advocacy Service, Aldermands Lodge, The Caludon Centre, Walsgrave, Coventry, CV22TE, UK.
TV/TS— TRANSESSEX: POB 3, Basildon, Essex SS14 1PT. Tel: (01268) 583761 e-mail: stacy@transessex.nildram.co.uk. Support.
TS— AIS SUPPORT GROUP: 2 Shirbum Ave., Mainsfield, Notts., NG18 2BY. Email: 100572.2376@compuserve.com.
TV/TS— BEAUMONT SOCIETY:
27 Old Gloucester Street, London, WC1N-3XX. Phone: +44 (0) 1582-412220. 24hr information line. Web: http:/ /mem- bers.aol.com/bmontsoc Membership fee. Support group
BEAUMONT SOCIETY PARTNERS' GROUP: phones: +44-1223-441246 (South), +44-1203-717528 (Central & Wales).
GENDYS NETWORK: BM Gendys, London, England DE56 IDE, Phone: 01773 828973, e-mail: jedbland@mcmail.com Web:
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 81
www. gendys.mcmail.com/ Group for MTF & FTM.
TS— CHANGE: BM Box 3440, London WC1N 3XX. Phone: +44-0-1303-259543. Email: TSlCHANGE@AOL.COM. Web: users.aol.com/tslchange/private/home- page.htm
FRIENDS MERSEYSIDE: 36 Bolton Street, Liverpool, L3-5LX. Phone: +44-151-709- 3181, Fri. 7.30-9 GMT.
FTM NETWORK [also PRESS FOR CHANGE): BM Network, London, WC1N 3XX. Phone: +44-161-423-1915, Wed. 8pm- 10.30 pm Wed. GMT EmaiLs. t.whittle@mmu.ac.uk.
Web: www.pfc.org.uk/press for change. Support, political lobbying and education group.
THE GENDER TRUST: BM Gentrust, London, WC1N-3XX. Tel:+44-1305-269222 before 10 pm GMT. Overseas Representative, Dorothy Francis, The Gender Trust, 3 Hartington Villas, Hove, BN3 6HF, ENGLAND.
TS— GENDER IDENTITY CONSULTAN- CY SERVICES: Phone: +44-1071 244 6090, FAX: 0171 244 6090. Email: GICS@aol.com.
INTERNATIONAL GENDER TRAN- SIENT AFFINITY: Box 2, 1 Banks Building, School Green Road, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, P040-9AJ. Human rights/research.
MERMAIDS: BM Mermaids, London WC1N 3XX. Group for children and teenagers with gender dysphoria and their families.
TV— NORTHERN CONCORDE: M60
1LN, Manchester e-mail: JennyB@Concord.nwnet.co.uk
TS— NEW GROUP FORMING:
We are forming a splinter group from Northern Concorde and will hold our first meeting on May 1st 2000 upstairs at the Hollywood Experience, BloomStreet, Manchester from 7-00 - ll-00pm in the upstairs back bar. It is hoped that we will become a TS support group for anyone who is not TV, but rather non-op/ pre-op/ post-op TS. All new members will be wel- comed. Jol (LexMacx@aol.com)
OUSU TRANSGENDER GROUP: Oxford University Student Union, Little Clarendon Street, Oxford. Phone: +44-1865-270777.
ROSE'S CLUB/repartee: P.O. Box 186 Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S73 oyt,
England, Tel/Fax +44 1226 754252. E-mail: roses@repartee.co.uk. URL: http://www. repartee.co.uk. Support for transgendered and partners + magazine and newsletters.
VANITY CLUB UK FOR GIRLS ON THE INTERNET: Provides friendship and con- tact with others for those wishing to get out and enjoy being T. For details, Web: http: / / www. geocities.com/westholly- wood/ village/7604/
IRELAND
TRANS-GENDER ARCHIVE: c/o Dr.
Richard Ekins, University of Coleraine, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, BT52 ISA Library and archive reference resource and research. +44 1265 44141.
BELFAST BUTTERFLY CLUB: Northern Ireland, P.O. Box 210, Belefast BT1 1BG +44 1585 430408
SCOTLAND
CROSSLYNX: c/o SGLS, PO Box 38 Glasgow, G2-2QF. Phone: +44-141-221-8372. HelpLine: +44-141-332-3333.
BEAUMONT SOCIETY PARTNER'S GROUP: phones: +44-01389-380389.
WALES
SOUTH WALES TV/TS GROUP: c/o Martina Rees, 56a Kinross Ct, Ridgway Road, Llan-Romney, Cardiff, VF3-9AE.
FRANCE
ASSOC. BEAUMONT CONTINENTAL: ABC, BP-3, F-68350 Didenheim.
ASSOCIATION D'AIDE AUX TRANS- SEXUELS: AAT, Maison des Associations, 93 La Canabiere, 13001 Marseille.
ASSOCIATION DEVENIR FEMME: Les
Terrasses du Mediterranee, 13006 Marseille.
ASSOCIATION DU SYNDROME DE BENJAMIN: Relais 59-59 avenue Daumesnil, 3 r Keller, 75012, Paris. 01 43 47 2125.
CARITIG: B.P. 17-22, 75810 PARIS CEDEX 17, FRANCE. Phone 33-1-42-27-42-28. Fax 33-1-64-31-05-82. Web: http:/ /www.interso- cial.org/carihg. Center for assistance, research and information on transsexuality and gender identity.
SWITZERLAND
TV-TS— TRANSPERSONA Postfach 6788, Zurich. Switzerland CH-8023 Email:transpersona@hoymail. com URL: http: / / www.geocities.com/ WestHolly- wood/Park/4111. Open membership. Monthly meetings. Membership fee.
TS— SELBSTHILFE GRUPPE: Postfach 92, CH-9008 St. Gallen.
KONTAKFORUM FEMME TRAVESTIE:
Postfach 6788, CH-8023, Zurich.
GERMANY
IS— AIS SELBSTHILFEGRUPPE: Postfach 7, 71201 Rottenburg am Neckar. (Fluent English, German.)
BODY AND SOUL: c/o KIBISS KISS. Hanover. Phone: +0511/666567 oder Stefanie 0511/457347.
TV/TS— CHELSI E.V.: Treff Sachsen, Roesslerstr. 9, 09113 Chemnitz. Phone: +49- 371-50094 (Friday only). FAX: +49-371- 55867.
CLUB NEUES LEBEN NOVA: PO Box 710232, 80634 Munchen. Phone: +49- 089/7916643, 6-6:30 pm (CET). speak German.
SELBSTHILFEGRUPPE FRANKFURT AM MAIN: Postfach 10 10 46, 63010 Offenbach. Tel. 069/8001008.
TV/TS— GEREDE E.V.: Treff Sachsen, Wiener Strasse 41, 01219, Dresden. Phone: +49-351/4640220 (Friday only).
INFORMATIONS KONTAKT UND VER- MITTLUNGSSTELLEFUR TRANSSEX- UELLE MENSCHEN IN BADEN WURT- TEMBERG E.V.: IKV, c/o AOK Karlsruhe, Kriegstr. 41, D-76133, Karlsruhe. Phone/FAX: +49-721-62-3382.
LEBENSBERATUNG FUR TRANSEX- UELLE MENSCHEN IM SAARLAND: c/o
Dr. Waltraud Schiffels, Schlossstr 6, D- 66117, Saarbruecken. Phone: +49-0681- 583912
SELBSTHILFEGRUPPE FUR TRANSSEX- UELLE MENSCHEN IN TUBINGEN: DAGMAR KALTENMARK, c/o
Sozialforum, Tubingen e.V., Paulinenstr. 25, D-72072, Tubingen. Phone:+49-7472- 6048.Email: 100722.3070@compuserve.com.
SELBSTHILFEGRUPPE: Monika Lusche, Muehlstr. 26, 74399 Waldheim. Phone: +49- 7143-33502. Astrid Votz, Forstr. 10, 71111 Waldenbach. Phone: 07157/8222. Email: 10722.3070@compuserve.com or 10157.1116@compuserve.com.
SONTAGSCLUB E.V.: Rhinover Strasse 8, D-10437, Berlin. Phone: +49-30-208-2035 (Friday 6-8 CET). Email: kasimir@inf.fu- berlin.de.
INTERESSENGEMEINSCHAFT TRANS- SEXUELLE GRUPPE IN DER SEKIS:
Albrecht-Achilles-Str. 65, 10709 Berlin Phone: 030/8926602.
TRANSIDENTITAS: Postfach 10 10 46, 63010, Offenbach. Phone: +49-69-800-1008.
TRANSSEXUELLEN-ARBEITSKREIS:
c/o HUCH, Westring 278, D-24116, Kiel. Phone: +49-431-17090. FAX: 431-17099.
TSH ESSEN: c/o Claudia Peppen horst, Caesarstr. 34, D-45130, Essen. Phone: +49- 201-786899.
TSH MUNSTER: c/o MIKS, Herwarthstr 2, 48143 Muenster. Phone: +49-251/511263, Claudia Scholz.
TS GRUPPE HAMBURG: Christian Susan Black, Nubeblerkamp 13a, 22175 Hamburg. Phone: 040-754-4323.
TVV: PO Box 1148, D-65780, Hattersheim.
TS— VIVA TS SELBSTHILFEGRUPPE MUNCHEN e.V.: Obere Muhlstr. 22, D- 81247, Munchen. Phone: 089-89-16 19 65 6- 6:30 pm CET. Please speak German.
TS— SELBSTHILFE BIELEFELD: C/0
Praxis fuer Beratung und Psychotherapie, Herm Detlef Kunert, Karl-Eilers-Str. 1, 33602 Bielefeld. Phone: 0521/63623.
TS— SELBSTHILFEGRUPPE BONN: c/o
SEKIS Bonn, Lotharstr. 95, 53115 Bonn. Phone: 0228/221754.
SHG DUESSELDORF: c/o Stefanie Sander, Pleistr. 1, B-4731 Eynatten/ Belgian. Phone/FAX: 0032/87852833.
TS — GRUPPE: c/o AIDS-Hilfe Thueringen, Postfach 50, 99001 Erfurt. Phone: 0361/7312233.
TS— ANGEHOERIGENGRUPPE AWO- BERATUNGSZENTRUM: Luetzow-Str. 32, 450101 Essen. Phone: 0201/312051, 0201/312052.
TS— SELBSTHILFE GOETTINGEN, TS IN PRAXIS DR. WIEDEKING: Buehistr. 28a, 37037 Goettingen. Phone: 0551 /46755.
SHG-HEIDELBERG: Andreas Kress, Postfach 103766, 69029 Heiderlberg.
TRANSIDENTITAS e.V. SHG KOBLENZ:
c/o Joana, phone: 0261/45040.
TRANSEXUELLENGRUPPE KOELN: c/o
Karin, phone: 02196/1739.
PRO FAMILIA SACHSEN: c/o Prof. Dr. L. Aresin, 04315 Leipzig. Phone: 0341/61530.
TRANSIDENTITAS e.V. SHG: c/o
Christoph, phone: 0391/5614616.
SHG MANHEIM: Andreas Tremmel, Postfach 1242, 67370 Dudenhofen.
TRANSIDENTITAS e. V.: WUF-ZEN- TRUM, Niggelweg 2, 97082 Wuerzberg, jeden4.
AUSTRIA
TRANSX-VEREIN TRANSGENDER: PO
Box 331, A-1171, Wien.
BELGIUM
FRANJEPOOT: Postbox 53, B-2100 Deume
1.
GENDERSTICHTING (BELGIUM GEN- DER FOUNDATION): Pluimstraat 48, B- 8500, Kortrijk. Phone: +32-56-21-9541 (M-F 9-11:30 am, 1-4:30 pm, M & W to 8 pm).
TS— VERVLIET JESSICA: Ravalsvarg Sdraad #372100, Dauma, Belgium. Support.
DENMARK
FPE-NE DENMARK: Postboks 361, DK- 1504 Copenhagen V. Email: FPE- NE.DK@dk-online.dk. Web: http:/ /www2. dk. online/users. fpe-ne.dk.
TRANSVISION: PO Box 280, DK-1502, Copenhagen V.
TRANSPAL: c/o Jen Christiansen, Ostergade 20 E, DK 9870 Sindal Phone/fax: +011 45 98935253. Social.
CD/TS/TG— TRANSVESTIFORENIGEN I DANMARK: TID, Postbox 9071, 1309 Kobenhavn K. Contacts: Solveig, chair- woman, +45 44999920, Fax +45 44959573. Fyn Mirell, +45 64801810, phone & fax. Jylland Cille, +45 97742299, phone & fax. Email: hd@danbbs.dk. Web: http://www.danbbs.dk/~tid. The club is open to other "Ts" also but, the main focus is on crossdressing.
ITALY
ALL— ARCITRANS NAZIONALE: Via
Torricelli, 19 — 20136 Milano. Tel: +39-2-894 01749 (Wednesdays 8-llpm), e-mail: arci- trans@iol.it. Contact: Mirella Izzo. T-civil rights group.
82 • Transgender Tapestry #90
NORWAY
FPE-NE NORWAY: Box 1968, Vika, N-0125 Oslo.
EUROFANTASIA: Box 442, N-4301 Sandnes. Phone & FAX: +47-51-66-24-22. Email: jermys@transgender.org.
SWEDEN
TS— BENJAMIN: PO Box 9083, S 102 71, Stockholm. Phone: +46-40-611-9923, Tues. 7- 9 pm CET.
FPE-S SWEDEN: Box 49029, S-400 64 Gothenburg. Phone: +46-8-34-1316.
PHI PI EPSILON SVERIGE: Box 529, S- 101 30 Stockholm. Phone: 08-604-13-93.
Web: www.fpes.org.
FINLAND
DREAMWEAR CLUB: Box 159, FIN-80101 Joensuu. E-mail: dreamwear@seta.fi Web: www.sgic.fi/~kjl/dreamwear.html
TRANS SUPPORT CENTER (mail and office) Hietalahdenkatu 2 B 16, FIN-00180 Helsinki Phone: +358-9-612 3243 Fax: +358-9-612 3266 Email: trans.tuki@seta.fi Web: http://www. sgic.fi/~jase/ttp Open during the day and most evenings, all transgendered welcome. Open house coffee evening every Thursday from 7 pm until 9 pm.
SETA: c/o Trans Center, Box 135, FIN- 00251 Helsinki. Phone: +358-0-2411-135. Email: ekt@seta.fi.
TS— TRASEK RY. Hietalahdenkatu 2 B 16 00180 Helsinki. Email: trasek@hotmail.com.
NETHERLANDS
TS— AIS SUPPORT GROUP: (038) 269845. (Fluent English, Dutch.)
TS— WERKGROEP TRANSSEKSU- ALITEIT GRONINGEN: EENDRACHT- SKADE NZ 19, 9718 BB GRONINGEN, +31-(50) 527-35-89. Contact H.H. VISSCH- ER, E-MAIL: francina@worldaccess.nl.
HOMODOK LESBISCH ARCHIEF AMS- TERDAM, Nieuwpoortkade 2a, 1055 rx Amsterdam, Tele: 020-60-60-712, FAX: 020- 60-60-713, E-mail: info@homodok-laa.nl, Web: www.homodok-laa.nl
GENDERTEAM AMSTERDAM: Prof Dr L.J.G. Gooren, Dept.
Endocrynology/Andrology, Free University Hospital, PO Box 7057, 1007 MB, Amsterdam. Phne: +31-020-444-0542 ext. 199. FAX: 444-0502.
FTM — HET JONGENSUUR: Binnenkadijk 178, 1018 ZH Amsterdam. Phone: +31 020- 6221710.
TV/TS — LANDELIJKE KONTAKT- GROEP TRAVESTIE EN TRANSSEKSU- ALITEIT: LKG T&T, Postbus 11575, 1001 GN Amsterdam. Phone: +31 10 -453-18-93. Email: Rosalind@xs4all.nl.
NEDERLANDSE VERENIGING HUMANITAS: PO Box 71, NL-1000 AB Amsterdam. Phone: +31 020-5231100. MTF, FTM self help groups.
FTM— MANNENGROEP: c/o Humanitas, PO Box 71, NL-1000 AB Amsterdam.
Phone: +31 020-5231100. FTM support group.
MTF/SO— WERKGROEP FACET: Rode Kruislaan 61, NL — 5628 GB Eindhoven. Phone: +31-40-241-5475.
TURKEY
LAMBDA ISTANBUL, PK 103 Goztepe, Istanbul. Fax 90.212.224.3792.
TV/TS— SEXUAL LIBERTIES: Use the ablove mailing instructions for Travesty /Transsexualle, c/o Iskendar Savasir. Educational outreach for all Islamic countries.
PAKISTAN
KHUSRA OF PAKISTAN: c/o Muhamid Aslam Khusra, PF-34 Abbotabad Hockey Stadium, Abbotabad. Phone: +92-5921-6158 (leave message) or 5921-2858.
BANGLADESH
YOUTH APPROACH: 3, Purana Paltan, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh. Phone: 88-02- 7555321. Email: yadc@bangla.net.
CZECH REPUBLIC
CZECH TRANSFORUM, prague, e-mail: oskar98@writeme.com Web: www.for- tunecity.com/village/newcompton/153 Supporting organization for Czech and possibly Slovak transsexuals, first in the Czech Republic. Just starting to work.
POLAND
THE ASSOCIATION FOR PROTECTING AND HELPING THE TRANSGENDERED PEOPLE "DES- TINY". Its headquarters is located at the following address: ul. Kombatantow 5G/1, 80-464 Gdansk, Poland. Phone num- ber: 48 (58) 346-52-54. "Destiny" is a TS sup- port group with heterosexual members, too. The main goal of the Association is to offer the help and support to people who are stigmatized with the Gender Dysphoria.
RUSSIA
TV/TS— ICE AND FIRE MOSCOW:
Margaret Mankevitch, c/o Masha Oleheva, 95-1-36 Vernadsky Ave., 117526, Moscow. Write Directly to Margaret Mankevich.
DO NOT PUT GROUP NAME OR TITLE ON ENVELOPE.
TV/SO— FPE LATVIA: Elga Remes, Jurmala, 15, PO Box 17 LATVIA LV 2015.
TV/TS/GLBT/CD— CORN-FLOWERS, The
Russian Society at the Volga River's Area: c/o Yuri Kumykov, PO Box 10, Saratov RUSSIA. Social group.
AUSTRALIA NEW SOUTH WALES
FTM— BOYS WILL BE BOYS: PO Box 1349, Strawberry Hills, 2012. Tel:+61-02- 319-2034.
THE GENDER CENTRE INC.: PO Box
266, Petersham, NSW 2049. Telephone:+61- 02-9569-2366. Email: gender@rainbow.net.au. Support group, counseling, referrals, accommodations, HIV information/materials.
CD— LES GIRLS: PO Box 504, Bumwood, 2134.
SEAHORSE SOCIETY NSW: PO Box 168, Westgate, NSW 2048. Telephone: +61-02- 9716-9439 (Thurs. eve ). Email: seahorse@cia.com.au
SEX WORKERS OUTREACH TRANS- GENDER SUPPORT PROJECT: SWOP,
PO Box 1453, Darlinghurst 2010. Phone: +61-02-212-2600; FAX : 212-3978.
TRANSGENDER LIBERATION COALI- TION: TLC, PO Box 208, Kings Cross, 2011. Phone: +61-02-358-5664.
QUEENSLAND
IS— MARY RUSSELL: PO Box 3371, Logan Hyperdrome, Loganholme, 4129.
AUS. TRANSGENDERIST SUPPORT ASSOC. INC.: ATSAQ, PO Box 212, New Farm, 4005, Phone: +61-07-846-3787 (24- hour helpline), 236-2400, FAX 236-2398.
FTM— BOYS WILL BE BOYS: PO Box 212, West End, 4005, Phone: 07-846-3787.
GENDER CLINIC: 484 Adelaide Street, Brisbane, 4000. Phone: +61-07-839-8262.
AUSTRALIAN TRANSGENDER SUP- PORT ASSOC.: PO Box 212, New Farm, Brisbane, QLD 4005. Phone: +61 03-846- 3787. Fax: +61 03-254-2680. Support group, professional services and referrals, 24-hour help line.
SEAHORSE SOCIETY OF QUEENS- LAND: PO Box 574, Annerley Brisbane, 4103. Phone: 61-7 38922124.
SELF HEALTH FOR QUEENSLAND WORKERS IN THE SEX INDUSTRY: SQWISI, PO Box 689, West End 4101. Phone: +61-07-844-4565. FAX: 844-8840.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
CARROUSEL CLUB INC: a non-profit group that provides a social outlet and sup- port for crossdressers and transsexuals of all ages and nationalities. PO. Box 721, Marleston SA 5033, Australia. Phone Michelle 61 8 8281 6190 or Carol 61 8 8289 2409
TRANSGENDER INFORMATION SERVICE OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA:
Contact: Lana Barlow, 8 Mawson Rd, Meadows, South Australia, 5201
CHAMELEONS GROUP: PO Box 907,
Kent Town, 5071. Phone: +61-08-362-1611.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA TRANSSEXUAL SUPPORT: Phone: +61-08-362-3223, Gayline; 362-1611, Jenny.
VICTORIA
CHAMELEON SOCIETY OF VICTORIA INC.: PO Box 500, Wiiliamstown, Victoria 3016. Phone: 61-3-93159172. Email: lynne@melbpc.org.au.
FTM TS— BOYS WILL BE BOYS: PO Box
328, Northcote, 3070.
GENDER DYSPHORIA CLINIC AT THE MONASH MEDICAL CENTRE: Clayton Campus, 246 Clayton Road, Clayton 3168. Phone: +61-03-955-1437, ask for Dawn.
SEAHORSE CLUB of VICTORIA, INC.:
GPO Box 2337V, Melbourne, Victoria 3001. Phone: +61 359-711-684. Support group.
TRANSGENDER LIBERATION AND CARE: TLC, PO Box 1674, South Preston, 3071. Phone: +61-394-811-506, ask for Sharon. Email: gayle@melbpc.org.au.
WEST AUSTRALIA
CHAMELEON SOCIETY: PO Box 367, Victoria Park, 6163. Phone: +61-01-577-1753.
GENDER COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA (W.A.) INC.: PO Box 58, Victoria Park,
6110. Phone: +61-09-362-5447.
WATS SUPPORT UNITY AND PRIDE: WATSUP, PO Box 771, Doubleview, 6018.
NEW ZEALAND
IS— INTERSEX SOCIETY OF NEW ZEALAND: PO Box 9196, Wellington. Phone: +6 4 4727386, FAX: +6 4 4727387.
NEW ZEALAND GENDER DYSPHORIA FOUNDATION: NZGDF, PO Box 2827, Auckland.
TOPS: PO Box 68-509, Newton, Auckland. Phone: 64 9 3666 106. Fax: (09) 3666 106- 8462 549. Support group and trans friendly medical clinic.
O.N.T.O.P. WELLINGTON: Ongoing Network Transgendered Outreach Project. P.O. Box 11-412, Manners Street, Wellington, NZ Email ontopnz@paci- ficwest.com
Web: http:/ /welcome. to/ontopnz A project of the "New Zealand Prostitutes Collective", provides support and information to the transgender sex industry workers community as well as referrals to other support networks.
JAPAN
ELIZABETH CLUB: 5-32-18 Kameido, Koto-ku, Tokyo 136. Phone: +81-3-3683- 6092.
ELIZABETH NAGOYA SHOP: 1-13-15 Noritake Nakamura-Ku, Nagoya-shi 453.
FTM NIPPON: c/o Adachi-Ku, Adachi- Nishi-post office, Tokyo 123. Email: ftm- japan@mxm.meshnet.or.jp. Support group and professional services. Newsletter is in Japanese only. Correspondence in English is acceptable.
ASIAN TS CLUB: c/o FTM Nippon, Adachi-ku, Adachi-Nishi Post Office, Tokyo 123. Asian international TG
TAIWAN
FEMININE BOY'S CONCERN ASSOCIA- TION: Contact: Peter Tehua Kao, 2F, #29, Lane 97, Chien-kuo Road Hsin-tein, Taipei, Taiwan, Tel.: +886-2-29112414. E-mail: peterkao @ tpts5. seed. net. tw
Transgender Tapestry #90 • 83
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#151 Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg $13.95 |
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#179 Sacred Country ... An FtM novel by Rose Tremain $10.00 |
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#au240 TS Man: An audio cassette by James Green. $9.95 |
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#188 Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits photos and text by Loren Cameron $24.95 |
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#034 Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality by Holly Devor, Ph.D. $14.95 |
#171 Masculizing Hormonal Therapy for the Transgendered by Sheila Kirk, M.D. $14.95 |
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#113 The Uninvited Dilemma: A Question of Gender by Kim E. Stuart $14.95 |
#161 Medical, Fegal & Workplace Issues for the Transsexual by Sheila Kirk, M.D. $18.95 |
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#181 I Am My Own Woman : An Autobiography by Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf $12.99 |
#180 The Physician 's Guide to Transgendered Medicine by Sheila Kirk, M.D. $10.00 |
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#439 Trans-X-U-All: The Whole Transsexual Experience by Tracie O'Keefe & Katrina Fox $19.95 |
#vi203 Gender Identity — Variations of Expression by Dr. Jayne Thomas & Prof. Toby Green. $39.95 |
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#124 Feelings One transsexual's explanation of a baffling condition, by Stephanie Castle $19.95 |
#175 Transsexuals Candid Answers to Private Questions by Gerald Ramsey, Ph. D. $22.95 |
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#037 From Masculine to Feminine and All Points In Between: Overall guide for any TV, TS, CD, TS, SO or helping professional by Jennifer Anne Stevens $19.95 |
#185 True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism for Families, Friends, Co-Workers, and Helping Professionals by Mildred L. Brown & Chloe Ann Rounsley $24.95 |
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#447 Raised by Wolves by Melanie Ann Phillips $19.95 |
#018 The Employer's Guide to Gender Transition [ by Dana Cole $10.00 |
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#172 Kim: A True Story by Kim Harlow & Bettina Rheims $20.00 |
#462 . . . Mom, I Need To Be A Girl by Just Evelyn $9.95 |
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#154 ID Management for the Transsexual by Dallas Denny $15.00 |
#036 Fegal Aspects of Transsexualism by Sister Mary Elizabeth, SS $10.00 |
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#460 Our Trans Children Pamphlet from PFLAG. $1.00 |
#vill3 I Am Who I Am (Music VIDEO) by Sam LaHanna $15.00 |
Visit the IFGE WEBSITE: www.ifge.org
Cat-4
| O t h e r Favorite Choices
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#vil03 Speaking as a Woman VIDEO by Allison Laing $30.00 |
#vil48 Melanie Speaks VIDEO $24.95 #cdl48 On Developing a Female Voice CD $19.95 #aul48 by Melanie Ann Phillips Cassette$14.95 |
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#vil05 Ladylike Deportment VIDEO by Paula Iordan Sinclair $30.00 |
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#vil01 Husbands & Wives, Best Friends & Lovers Dealing with crossdressing in relationships VIDEO produced by Donna Mobley $30.00 |
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#vil02 Metamorphosis: Man into Woman VIDEO documentary of Gary's change to Gaby $39.95 |
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#vil36 Art & Illusion Basic Makeup VIDEO #vil04 Art & Illusion Tricks & Tips VIDEO by JoAnn Roberts $30.00 each |
#vil50 Gender 101 VIDEO produced by IFGE $29.95 |
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#cd232 Play to Win Music by Pamela Davis $12.99 |
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#026 Art & Illusion Vol. 1: Face & Hair by JoAnn Roberts $15.00 #040 Art & Illusion Vol. 2: Fashion & Style by JoAnn Roberts $15.00 |
#LL Ladylike Magazine $10.00 |
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Bv Virginia Prince: #021 The Cross Dresser and His Wife $12.00 #022 Understanding CrossDressing $12.00 #023 How to Be A Woman Though Male $14.00 |
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YOU CAN PLACE YOUR ORDER OVER THE PHONE WITH A VISA OR MASTERCARD - CALL (781) 899- 2212. Questions? ask for Denise or e-mail her at: books@ifge.org. |
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Member Type (if applicable) Student/Low Income Basic Supporting Benefactor Life MEMBERSHIP # |
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Discounts DO NOT apply to Shipping & Handling, Magazine orders, or subscriptions. Please allow 3 to 4 weeks for delivery Make checks and/or money orders payable to: IFGE, P.O. Box 540229 Waltham, MA 02454-0229 For Visa /MasterCard Only: Card #: |
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■ Shipping and Handling — $3.00 each for the l1 first two items, $1.50 for each add'l item 9 International Orders subject to additional shipping determined by ■ country & zone & postage class selected (Surface or Air). Prices ■ subject to change without notice. |
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Membership Discount: Shipping & Handling: MA Residents 5% Sales Tax |
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Cat-5
More Hot New Styles from
•Affordable Tcintasiee lUu&ion&
CHECK OUT THE SPECTACULAR SAVINGS BELOW ! We at Affordable Fantasies & Illusions, have created a FANTASTIC clothing line especially made to fit crossdressers perfectly (Slimmer hips. Longer arms, Wider shoulders, higher necklines, and longer garment
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To order any clothing in this ad simply provide your chest and waist measurement below and we will send you the correctly sized piece. Take advantage of our sale prices now.
Style DR04 New for the Fall & Winter! Simply luxurious long gown with sexy, high slit on the leg. Fits height 5'8” - 6’ 2". Made in soft poly in Black and also in burgundy stretch velvet.
(Avail.
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Breastforms on Sate !!
We are now having our 100% • silicone breastforms custom made. We have improved their durability, made them even softer and bouncier, and they now have a specially-formed, hardened raised nipple that is built into the form. It is even raised enough that you can see it show through a thin t-shirt ! We have also added a matte finish to the breastform so that they will match your skin better . Our new forms look extremely natural on your body - we know you will love them! We are currently offering the BFCLT (teardrop shape) on sale. They are offered in the nude color shown above. When ordering please specify your chest size (ex: ordering a 38fullC or 42regD etc) Our Breastforms are offered in the following sizes: BFCLT: Reg B, Full B, Reg C, Full C, Reg D, Full D, DD Price for the pair: Sale price $278.15 Price for the pair with Adhesive and remover so you can wear them braless! Sale price $ 298.95
BLOUSE Style TP01 New Lace top. Fits tight and sexy. Dense lace pattern for hair coverage.
Fits Chest Sizes 36 - 46 Colors:
Black, White Pr/'ce:$ 34.95
SKIRT Style SWG01 Great Circle Swing Skirt. Fun and Flirty ! Colors:
Black, Fled Avail, waist sizes: 26-42 Price only: $33.75
Amazing 'Sew Ultra - Realistic Vagina!!
You can now completely finish off your feminine look! We are now offering the most realistic latex vagina ever! Our piece is carefully sculpted in the front to look amazingly true to life ! You will not believe how realistic it looks on! This piece is put together extremely well - you will be totally satisfied. We offer it in a medium nude skin tone and in two hair colors: Dark brown or Med/light Brown. You must specify your waist size when ordering (28” - 42" only)
(UULVGOI) Price $86.75
\A
Our Classic Waist Slimmer and our Gaff !
Style WC03 - Satin Waist Slimmer with
lace insets. Pulls in your waist to create a more feminine figure. Order 2-4 inches smaller than your waist. Sizes: 26 - 38 Color: Black Price $ 32.95 Style It Gaff - Satin Gaff. Every cross- dresser needs one! Our custom design
Order Here or at our Website:
Style # Color
http://www.crossdress.net
Size Price
Shipping costs: $50 $100 add $7.00. ShippinCJ
$100 - $300 add $10.00. rr ^
Over #300 add $14.00 JP89 I Total
smooths out your front genital area. Matches the waist Slimmer (as shown above) Sizes: 26 - 38 Colors: Black, White
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If paying by Mail use Postal Money Order for Fastest Delivery. Make Checks/ Money Orders payable to BEST VALUE PRODUCTS.
Visa/MC/Disc #
Exp Date
Name
Address
City
State
Zip.
Best Value Products • PO Box 156 • Wyncote • PA • 19095 215-782-9025 Fax:215-782-9180 E-mail: bvp@p3.net
RSI liasons at Four Seasons Hotel, Tokyo Masae Torai, trans liason In Japan
“ I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took to the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”
— Robert Frost
Institute
Answering the call in the 21st Century to cause change for Trans Persons world-wide
22 West Ontario Street is located in the heart of Chicago’s culture and commerce.
• These other pictures were taken by Rlkki Kay Swin during a recent trip to Japan • James Green appeared on Fuji National Television • These are part of RSI's ongoing efforts to promote trans person visibilty and acceptance.
# RSI is a fully-funded 501(c)(3) Foundation
# RSI is dedicated to improving trans person understanding and acceptance in mainstream society
# RSI is partnering Research with Corporate America to benefit society and the Trans Community
# RSI is providing important resources for professional caregivers in the Trans Community
# RSI is maintaining one of the world’s largest Trans Community Libraries & Archives
# RSI is sponsoring Professional Caregivers at International Conferences including IFGE, Chicago, March 2001
|
RSInstitute@aol.com |
Visit with us. |
www.RSInstitute.org |
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Phone 312.670.7946 |
22 West Ontario Street • Chicago IL • 60611 GRAND OPENING MARCH 2001 |
FAX: 312.670.9051 |